Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Most of these issues certainly will be addressed in the detail. A lot of areas, Members have stated, are important factors to consider. There have been some changes: training of early childhood workers while they're away, arts and performers and culture, increasing funding.

Some of these areas have been stressed in this House, and we did listen to the Members. ALBE — Adult Literacy and Basic Education — has been an ongoing challenge at the community level, but we are certainly noticing that and focusing on where we can improve in those areas. The PTR — we are heavily focused on improving this area. Inclusive schooling: that's also increased by 19 per cent. So those areas that we touch on will certainly benefit the North.

Income Security has been a big issue lately. With respect to the transfer, it's still ongoing. We've done a lot of work in that area. We did present to the committee, I believe, two weeks ago — gave them

an update on the progress we've made. I think we're making great strides in that area.

Income support, as Mr. R.C. McLeod has pointed out — I think it's important to highlight that as well. We are, as a department, focusing on that area. We need to have our community members have productive choices, and one of the areas we're currently developing and want to implement is Ready to Work, as well, in that area. We will be working with Aurora College and different institutions, having a program in place for them, so they can be available for work, prepped for work. We are doing as much as we can in that area.

Teachers' housing is an issue that we've been faced with for a number of years. We met in Norman Wells, I believe, a month ago, and every single chairperson from each region — five regions — did stress the frustration, the losing of the teachers, the recruitment. Recruitment is a challenge. The first question they ask is: what kind of housing do you have? So for that, we invited the superintendent of the group…. All the superintendents were there. The spokesperson met with us this morning; myself, HR, and also the Housing Minister was there. They did give us some options to work with, coming from the chairs and the superintendents of the districts. So we are making progress. I believe we're going to come to some conclusion for the betterment of the communities, and we will be discussing further with the committee, of course — moving forward, finding some solutions in that area. So I think that's good news in that area that we are working together. Mr. Hawkins talked about synergy. We're moving towards that area.

Mr. Chair, most of these issues that were brought to our attention I've touched on. Elders having their own homes and elders in public units — it has been brought to our attention that there needs to be a balance; we've been told. So in those areas we need to look at the program itself. But we can certainly talk further in detail at a later time, because we still have three years of planning to go through this business planning process.

Daycare — the availability and the program itself — has been brought up in this House. There are different types of programs that are available to daycare facilities and individuals that are caring for children. There is funding in place for them.

Apprenticeship, apprenticeship, apprenticeship. That has been highlighted on numerous occasions — even Mrs. Groenewegen in Hay River — starting from school; it has been highlighted. That's part of the reason why we've invested so much in apprenticeship and are reinvesting $1 million back into the wage subsidy to offset that, and then new initiatives. That's one area we've heard over and

over, so we've made a commitment to focus in that area.

Social workers in the schools — we've heard that if we had more money, then I'm sure a community would welcome that. But we're limited in the funding that we work with. The funding we give out to the school board authorities, it's at their discretion to dispose of in areas of interest: a program that meets the needs of the school, and also the students and the teachers.

Also, the Foreign Worker Program: we are making progress in that area. We met with our Yukon counterparts and federal counterparts, so my staff have been working with those parties. There's ongoing discussion, and we will be submitting a paper on that.

Children First Society — yes, Mr. McLeod has raised that issue. I met with the group I believe three times while in Inuvik. We did receive a letter just late last week from the mayor of Inuvik, approving that there is a lot that they've identified. We just received that, so we will be working with that within our department. So we are making progress in that area.

Mr. Chair, I think that's basically the overall general comments, because some Members alluded to other Members' statements. I don't want to take up much time on general statements, because I think the details would highlight most of those areas. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. What is the wish of the committee?

Interjection.

Detail? Maybe turn your attention to page 8-7, Operations Expenditure Summary, Department Summary: $293.914 million. We'll defer that until the end. Page 8-8, Active Positions — By Region, information item. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. As

highlighted in my comments, I just want some clarity on some of the position deletions that are going on within the department. I see that the department is actually increasing by a total of seven positions, yet I'm aware that five employees have been identified and have been told that they'd be affected.

I'm curious — number one — about the status of those five positions. Are they vacant positions? Are they filled positions? I'm also curious what process the department went through in finding areas for reductions, and what criteria they used for identifying positions within the department to have

them declared affected. I'll stop there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. In '08–09 the proposed reduction — just highlighting the active positions: the coordinator position, Education and Culture branch, one position; administrator position, Official Languages Division, one position. Going on to '09–10, coordinator, College and Career Development, one position; finance officer, Student Financial Assistance, one position; Strategic Business Services division position, two positions. So the total reduction in that area for '09–10 is four, and in '08–09 it's two positions.

Also, due to sunsets that we had, the ASEP coordinator, one position; and also the career education coordinator, a half-time position, has been sunsetted. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to be absolutely clear, that’s two positions, not including the sunsetted positions, that are being eliminated in ’08–09. What is the status of those positions? Are they filled, or are they vacant?

Minister of Education? Mr. Devitt.

Going to the second part of my first question, I’m curious: you were given targets to find reductions, and I’m curious what criteria you used in order to determine which positions would, in fact, be targeted for deletion.

Deputy Minister Daniels.

Mr. Abernethy.

Mr. Chairman, I’m done.

Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just trying to extend a little further than my colleague Mr. Abernethy and get a sense of the evaluation. I heard they did some work to see how they could reduce, but I’m just trying to get a sense of how they went about evaluating whether a position was needed or not. So could either the Minister or deputy minister describe the evaluation process of the eliminated positions — how they went about making that type of decision?

Deputy Minister Daniels.

The coordinator position…. I’m just trying to get a sense. You dropped the assessment testing. What percentage of that job was related to this testing?

What about the other 95 per cent?

Thank you. Could — I assume the deputy minister but, of course, the Minister as well — someone expand as to who will now pick up those duties, and how that was decided? Thank you.