Mahsi, Madam Chair. Let me start with the Northern Distance Learning program there. It just hits a vein sometimes with that thing. I might be your biggest skeptic on this program here. The reason I use the word "skeptic" is because I think there was a large graduation just recently of the students in my community, and most had taken online courses. Now, none of them have moved on to higher education. I'm not getting any answers from the Deh Cho Divisional Education Council regional superintendent when I asked for their actual grade levels when they have graduated.

That's why I am kind of skeptical about this program, because I think somewhere in your education renewal or something, I think you are really counting on this Northern Distance Learning program to really improve the student outcomes. Like I say, everything is just fine and dandy on paper, but in actual use, like I say, I'm skeptical of this program. I really wish it would work, because the aim is to bring the classroom teacher, maybe somebody from biology or physics or chemistry. Those are the nice big science programs. Our students in the small communities probably can't handle it, but there probably are some that can. I don't even know if those courses are even being taught there. We all know about social passing. I don't know if we're still practising that with this Northern Distance Learning program. It's lots of confidential stuff there, and the regional superintendent doesn't want to share the information with me, but it's going to have to come out somewhere, somehow. It's important.

I'm always trying to see how we could get our students to better themselves, have better education, but we hit these roadblocks. I don't know if it's the people in charge. I'm trying to really work with the kids to get them going somewhere, but I have stumbling blocks. I was of the mindset that, once a student graduates, they should be doing a placement test just to see where they actually are in their grade level, because maybe we can grab them while they're still young and start walking the streets and falling into peer pressure, and we throw them into the adult education learning system.

The upgrading, that's where you're going to have to spend a lot of money, too. If you want a good education, we have to spend money and work on it. We have to do a better job than what we are doing right now. We should be increasing all of these budgets. I wish I could give you all that money so we could see what we can do to help the people in the small communities, because on here, you're saying that you're making academic courses available and whatnot. Maybe I'll just stop there and just let you or your deputy minister, people in your department, comment on that Northern Distance Learning program. Mahsi.