Mr. Speaker, the Minister has indicated that these certain points within the education system are measured against a certain function level. The assessments of the Alberta achievement tests that we take indicate that 30 percent of students are operating below expected levels of education. certainly that raises alarms, it raises a lot of concerns for people in my region. I want to ask the Minister in terms of his initiative, the Sahtu did indicate that they would like a symposium to really talk about education and the seriousness, as I mentioned in my Member’s statement, in terms of the livelihood of our nation of people and anybody to make a contribution to that, but also to know that they are getting a good quality education that would get them into a career of their choosing. I want to ask the Minister in terms of what he talked about, some educational forms in terms of what he is expecting in terms of accomplishing by having these forms that he is proposing to the House.

Mr. Speaker, our goal and mandate is to provide the true quality

education here in the Northwest Territories along with the partnership with the various southern institutions so they do accredit our programs as well. We deliver high school programs, not only that but post-secondary as well. We have been successful in that degree.

I did a Member’s statement, 102 graduates out of the post-secondary. We are pushing the students through the venue through post-secondary level and through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. That is an area that will be the prime focus on the education quality, the enrolment, how the students are progressing through our education system and working with the parents, working with the school boards and across the Northwest Territories. We have representatives on there that deals and also provides input. We made some recommendations already and we will be receiving our report I believe at the end of June. We are going to the communities in the regions starting in September, fall time. We are going to be visiting all regions and highlighting what we have found and inputs from the region. I would like to get their inputs, as well, at the same time.

Mr. Speaker, we are moving forward on this. This fall will be a busy schedule for us, along with the MLAs. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the Minister’s initiative in terms of improving the true quality of education in the Northwest Territories, because the last several years of my experience, we have not been receiving that in my region. I do have people leaving this institution in Grade 12 that cannot get into a post-secondary education or a university even, let alone a job, Mr. Speaker. I would ask the Minister in terms of this mandate here, if he is willing to work truly with the leadership in the Sahtu communities to look at major changes into the Education Act, the system that can deliver true quality education in our communities, which may require additional dollars that we can get to have a proper standard of education, teachers, classrooms in the Sahtu.

Mr. Speaker, that is what we are doing this fall. We are consulting with various aboriginal groups, leaders, the school board members, the MLAs of the particular ridings, highlighting what we have found, what we have heard from the communities, what we have heard from the committee members, what we have heard from their representatives.

Mr. Speaker, those will be laid out in the communities and I think to honour that, it will certainly be a greater improvement into our programming. Basically what I am looking at is building on our strength. We do have an education system that is very successful to date. Yes, there is always room for improvement; I am willing to accept

that. I think this package will give us direction as well. It is coming from the people of the North so, Mr. Speaker, I am looking forward to that. Mahsi.

Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question I have for the Minister, in terms of one small initiative that the Minister and I have talked about, is including the elders into our educational system. It has been three years since I have been bringing this up here, and yet we have not seen the light of day in terms of having the educational system open up our doors to the elders. We have been offering them solutions on this side. When is the Minister going to say as a step in the right direction for providing quality education in the classroom, on the land, that the elders would be included into our education system? There will be room for them. There will be elders in our educational system.

Mr. Speaker, I do agree that elders are valuable and the importance of their presence in the schools I fully support. Along with this strategic initiative, that will be part of the discussion as we move forward. We need to get around a system of how we pay them. That has been a very controversial issue lately because of their pension claw-back from the federal government. We certainly don’t want to have any impact on their pension, so we are trying to work around a system how it is feasible to do. We are currently discussing that. I did have feedback from the Sahtu MLA on how we can manoeuvre around the system, around the challenges. Mr. Speaker, those are the areas that we continue to focus on. This fall we will deliver key messaging. We want to expedite the process to having the elders in the school. That is one of the commitments that I am making. Mahsi.

The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

The honourable Minister of ITI, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will be working with the Public Utilities Board. Right now, our timelines are that we will be introducing these changes for implementation in October of 2010. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have that as a date to move forward. I know that recently in the newspaper the president of the NWT Power Corporation had indicated that the minimum rates would remain the same, but the Minister made an even better announcement that there will be some reductions across the board in many communities. Can he explain if there is a communication strategy as a result of this announcement today that will go out to the communities and throughout the NWT? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, this morning we had a technical briefing with the media. We will have a press conference this afternoon at two o’clock. We also will be attending the NWTAC meeting in Hay River where we will be doing further briefing of the communities. We will also be sending out information to all of the interveners and it includes all of the communities that participated in this process. Certainly, as we go forward, we will provide detailed information to our clientele. I think it’s also important to note that we will be working a lot closer with the utilities and they will also be providing information. As we go to implement the rates we will be using our PUB process, that’s the Public Utilities Board process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much. It is incredibly good news. I’m glad to see that work finally rolling out. Just in terms of my riding alone, Mr. Speaker, how would that communication strategy roll out to many of the small communities? Especially like Nahanni Butte, which the Minister had mentioned had one of the highest rates around. Will they be sending a package, as well, to all the smaller communities or just to all the communities? Thank you.

Thank you. We see that as part of our public education process. As well, utilizing the PUB process we’ll make sure that every community or municipality will have the basic information that will explain how these rate changes will be undertaken and, certainly, they’ll have an opportunity for input at that level as well. Thank you.

Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. These changes are huge. Maybe the Minister can tell me how many rate zones we’ll be reducing. I don’t know if he mentioned it in here at all. Then, of course, Mr. Speaker, one of my

election... When I first got elected I always aimed to move towards a one-rate zone, but I see that at least we’re consolidating some zones. Maybe the Minister can explain that. Thank you.

Thank you. As the Member knows, up until this point we’ve been operating with 33 different rates for the Northwest Territories. What we are doing is we are moving to seven rate zones and on that basis we have simplified the system significantly. We’re also moving to territorial-wide rate riders so that in the interest of fairness, we have a more balanced approach with regard to costs. So on that basis we have simplified the system. We have also committed to working with those communities that have power provided by NUL so that we can work out similar arrangements there as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the new redesigned licence plate in my statement and I have a few questions for the Minister of Transportation this morning. In answer to Mr. Menicoche the other day, he spoke about the intent of this program, this implementation program for the new plates, and I understand the intent that they want to get people using the new plate, but I’m having difficulty with the fact that we are being forced to buy the new plate. So I’d like to ask the Minister why the Department of Transportation is forcing residents to buy this new plate. Why can’t we keep the old one until it falls apart and then get a new one? Thank you.

The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe we’re forcing anybody to buy a new plate. If you need a plate, you’re going to have to pay for it. That’s the cost recovery that’s required for this program, and we can’t keep the old plate because the old plate does not meet industry standards or national standards. The size is not what it’s required to be and there’s also visibility issues with the old plate. There was also the issue of safety. So we are now moving forward as one of the last jurisdictions to do so and we’re meeting the national standards that all other jurisdictions in North America are required to. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister and I must have missed something in that translation. I didn’t realize that we weren’t meeting industry standards. I thought it was a matter of reflection and so on. I have a hard time when the Minister says that the

people aren’t being forced to, if you need a new plate. I don’t need a new one, I need a sticker, I don’t need the plate, but we’ll leave it at that.

I’d like to ask the Minister what is the cost to the government. What was the cost? What is the cost going to be for us to find a new manufacturer and to produce these new plates? Thank you.

Thank you. The cost for the new plate and the manufacture and associated paperwork is $10, Mr. Speaker.