The philosophy being expressed here, I am not sure it can be expressed in those specifics. Basically, what we are saying is that, throughout the whole education system, whether it is the bureaucrats, the teachers, the politicians, the families or the students; one, students are aware of the choices that are available to them; and, two, they are given the tools necessary to pursue those choices. If it is the case that a student knows that they have an opportunity, they would like to be a doctor, then they have to know that the school system will give them the tools so that when they get into university, they will be able to go through successfully. If they decide they want to be a carpenter, the school system will also provide them that background. Whatever the students want, they have to have the full support of the system. We are not asking for anything inferior here. If they are going to be a carpenter, they are going to be one of the best carpenters in the country. If they are going to be a lawyer, they are going to be one of the best lawyers in the country. If they decide to work in Japan, they are not blocked because of something we didn't give them.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to recommendation 15, I move that the committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment adopt a focus on excellence as the fundamental principle of the educational system, and implement a plan by the 1994-95 school year to monitor the achievement of northern students and to continually strive to help northern students achieve excellence in their studies.

With regard to recommendation 14, I move that the committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment provide a detailed report on the anticipated impact on programs of the reduced 1994-95 budget allocation to the department. The committee further recommends that this report be provided prior to the department's main estimates being considered in the committee of the whole.

Thank you. With regard to recommendation 13, I move that the committee recommends that the funding formula for campuses of Arctic College be designed to encourage innovation and success in attracting third-party funding.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regards to recommendation 12, I move that the committee recommends that the government commit to allocating sufficient resources to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for the 1994-95 school year to meet the special needs of northern students.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to recommendation 11, I move that the committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, in cooperation with the Departments of Social Services, Justice and Health, examine the "partners for youth" model and implement pilot projects based on that model in one school in each region for the 1994-95 school year.

Likewise, our report is long and it shows the hard work and dedication that the committee put into their report.

The committee believes strongly that the education of northerners is one of the most important responsibilities of the government. In fact, the Standing Committee on Finance would like to see the government explicitly state that its highest priority is education.

There are many new initiatives coming from this department that suggest the government is taking this responsibility seriously. However, given the department's lack of strategic planning -- or probably, to put it more fairly, the lack of completion and implementation of a strategic plan -- and the apparent size and bulk of the education bureaucracy, we have concerns that the department may not be able to implement these initiatives in a timely and effective manner. For this reason, and because similar concerns have been identified elsewhere throughout the government, the committee is recommending that a priorized list of initiatives, with resource requirements and time frames, be developed for each department.

School-Based Youth Service Model ("Partners for Youth")

Committee Members described a pilot project being implemented in an Edmonton junior high school, based on a model called "Partners for Youth". With this model, developed in San Diego, a social services team is put together in the school. In the Edmonton example, at Wellington Junior High School, the ten-member team includes a nurse, a police constable, a social worker, a probation officer, a therapist, and so on. The goal of the project is to ensure that at-risk and potentially at-risk students and their families will have a school-based, single entry point access to a range of community services.

While our schools and communities may not be able to implement such a project on the same scale, the concept of a school-based single entry point is a sound one in the opinion of committee Members. The program is designed to require no extra funding; rather, existing resources are reassigned. We feel that this project deserves serious consideration by the government as a possible means of helping the youth and their families in the communities of the Northwest Territories.

Recommendation 11

The recommendation that I will make at the appropriate time will read that: The committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, in cooperation with the departments of Social Services, Justice and Health, examine the "Partners for Youth" model and implement pilot projects based on that model in one school in each region for the 1994-95 school year.

Teaching Days

The committee is glad to see that the department has considered increasing the number of teaching days in the proposed new Education Act. A preliminary assessment of how Canada rates in comparison with other countries in the duration of the elementary school year indicates that we fall somewhere in the low to mid-range. The committee encourages the department to pursue this comparison further by reviewing practices and corresponding results in other countries.

Staff Housing

Committee Members are concerned that the failure to build or lease new staff housing, especially in level II and III communities, along with the recent changes in the staff housing policy which have seen some sales of the government's limited staff housing stock in these communities, might well prove to be a barrier in hiring new teachers in smaller communities where there is little or no private housing market. We encourage this department to work closely with the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Personnel and the Housing Corporation to ensure that adequate housing is available for the teachers and other government employees in these communities. We are especially concerned about housing for the significant number of new teaching positions identified in the main estimates for the Department of Education in 1994-95. When the department presents its budget, the committee will require a plan for meeting the housing needs of each new employee on a community-by-community basis.

Special Needs

Many northern students have special needs that require extra resources. Committee Members are looking forward to the release of the final special needs assessment survey being completed by the department. The committee expects that, once the report is released, the government will see fit to ensure that adequate resources are provided to schools and other agencies to provide for NWT students with special needs. The department is encouraged to develop innovative approaches to special needs, including special schools if necessary.

Recommendation 12

The committee recommends that the government commit to allocating sufficient resources to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for the 1994-95 school year to meet the special needs of northern students.

Arctic College

The committee expressed serious concern about financing the various campuses of the college. It appears that campuses which have been the most imaginative, proactive and successful in attracting third-party funding for their programs have been penalized in this year's budget. This strikes committee Members as being counterproductive. Given the government's limited resources, any initiatives which enable more and better programs to be provided without using more government funds should be encouraged, not discouraged. We encourage the Minister to develop a formula which will reward, not punish, the most innovative and successful campuses.

Recommendation 13

The committee recommends that the funding formula for campuses of Arctic College be designed to encourage innovation and success in attracting third-party funding.

The committee has a more general concern. The college budget is being reduced at a time when demands are rising. There are a number of factors contributing to this increased demand, including land claims implementation, mining developments, and planning and training for constitutional development. The department indicated that the new investing in people program will absorb some of this demand but the committee is very concerned that the one year lead time required for planning and implementation of this new program will cause a serious gap in the availability of training opportunities at a time when public expectations and demands on the college are very high.

Recommendation 14

The committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment provide a detailed report on the anticipated impact on programs of the reduced 1994-95 budget allocation to the college. The committee further recommends that this report be provided prior to the department's main estimates being considered in the committee of the whole.

Income Security Reform

The Ministers of Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment presented a new income security reform proposal to the committee during the budget hearings. This proposal along with the committee's comments are discussed under the Department of the Executive, executive offices on page 40. I think that has already been reviewed by this committee.

Achieving Excellence

The committee was gratified by the Minister's statement today as a first step towards recognizing excellence as a fundamental underpinning of the educational system. Committee Members are concerned that there is not enough emphasis on excellence in our schools. The youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. If today's youth are taught only mediocrity and "getting by," what leadership choices will we have tomorrow?

With the emphasis on reducing the dropout rate and working merely to keep children in school, we can sometimes lose our focus on achievement. School should not be a place where children learn to "just get by;" it should be a place where they learn to excel.

It is the responsibility of all -- and we emphasize all -- participants in the education system, including teachers, board members, bureaucrats, parents and especially students, to raise their standards, to do their best and not merely what's "good enough." Teachers and school administrators must be encouraged to be frank with students and their parents. If a child is having difficulty, the problem must not be ignored with platitudes and indiscriminate passing from one grade to another. Rather, the school, the student and the parents must work together to address the difficulty as early as possible before moving on to other areas. A new attitude of excellence will make a tremendous difference in the way students and teachers feel about their schools.

Recommendation 15

The committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment adopt a focus on excellence as the fundamental principle of the educational system and implement a plan by the 1994-95 school year to monitor the achievement of northern students and to continually strive to help northern students achieve excellence in their studies.

Standardized Testing

Again, we were glad to hear the positive response by the Minister's statement today to the results of standardized testing. In recent standardized achievement tests administered across the country, students from the NWT generally scored the lowest. These are unfortunate results. The committee is concerned not only by the results themselves but even more so by the reaction to those results. The reaction to a poor performance in standard tests should not be defensive. Rather, attention should be focused on developing ways and means to help our students achieve as well as or even better than other Canadian youth. As I said, the Minister's statement today is living up to the principle that we recommended.

One of the more undesirable spin-off effects of these results is that they imply to educators across the country that, for example, an NWT grade 12 diploma isn't as valuable as a grade 12 diploma awarded elsewhere. Committee Members believe that if education we provide our youth isn't portable, it isn't very valuable. It means that we are preparing our students only for life in their home communities but not for life in Canada and in the world. This is not acceptable.

So, when these tests tell us our students are behind their fellow Canadians, we shouldn't point fingers or try to lay blame. What we should do is sit down and say, "How can we improve? What do we have to do?" And then we should do it.

Recommendation 16

The committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment make a commitment to undertake the following: -To continue to participate in standardized testing and examine the results of the tests;

-To objectively compare northern students to the national average and determine the reason for any significant differences; and,

-To develop strategies to help students achieve at levels comparable to other students in Canada.

Further, the committee recommends that the department respond to the Standing Committee on Finance with an analysis and initial strategy by January 1, 1995.

Video Production

A recommendation which covers the need to provide a cost-benefit analysis for in-house video production is contained in the Executive section of this report, under the Financial Management Board Secretariat. I would like to thank the Minister for providing a briefing, in coordination with the Department of Renewable Resources in the area of video production. The committee is still analysing the results of that briefing and will report to the House when we have finalized our recommendations.

"Stay In School"

The committee is glad to see that the department has implemented a community-based "stay in school" strategy. The education of today's northern youth is critical to the future of the north and any strategy that is effective in convincing young northerners to stay in school and complete their education is a worthwhile one. We encourage the department to continue developing this strategy and incorporate measures by which its success can be gauged.

Day Cares And Schools

In keeping with the department's "stay in school" strategy, the committee was glad to hear about the department's plans to incorporate day care spaces into schools. Not only will this give young mothers a chance to attend school without major inconvenience to their children, it could also provide the opportunity for schools to teach courses in parenting skills. Opportunities to learn parenting skills could be available both to young mothers and fathers, as well as to other youth who should be prepared for eventual parenthood.

Committee Members do suggest, however, that the department avoid disrupting existing community day care facilities. Where possible, day care spaces should be developed with the cooperation of existing facilities. If the opening of a school day care would cause the closing of a community dare care, then alternate arrangements should be developed. The committee encourages the department to be flexible and innovative in this important area.

That completes the report of the Standing Committee on Finance on the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I am prepared to move motions. The chairman is prepared to allow me to move motions. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, and it deals with the block funding agreement between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the city of Yellowknife. Yellowknife MLAs fully supported that agreement and acknowledge the efforts of the Finance Minister, Mr. Pollard, and the then Minister of MACA, Mr. Patterson, in closing this very progressive arrangement. It was understood that there were some extraordinary repair requirements that would be kept outside of that arrangement, and they included the central business district, the sewer and water system in the central business district, and also the School Draw area. There have been negotiations between the government and the city over the past couple of years, and my understanding is FMB has said they want to negotiate it on a year-by-year basis and not a long-term deal. I wonder if the Minister could enlighten me as to the progress of those negotiations.

This is my last comment, Mr. Chairman. I think the frustration that the Minister is sharing with us strengthens the point of the standing committee that it is difficult to deal with these issues one at a time, because, if you deal with the Department of Health issue, then the Department of Health bureaucracy, who are in the health culture, have very strict health perspective.

The Department of Finance, as we know, is probably the most interesting culture of them all. It is very difficult for them ever to let go with their theories of how life goes around. There is no certainty in any of this, as you know, in this serious fiscal situation the country finds itself in. The only way to unlock some of these individual problems is with a package. Again, we have emphasized that. Sometimes it is easier to say than to put into effect.

Basically, at the Finance Minister's level and the Prime Minister's level, they have to be convinced of a political as well as a financial package. The goals that we are trying to achieve, through the resolution of these problem areas, have to be goals that fit into their long-term objectives. The goal of economic self-sufficiency has that long-term payback to Canada, because as the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources has said a number of times, any big project here, 70 per cent of the benefit goes to Ontario, Quebec, Alberta or British Columbia.

They have given a great deal of lip service to the whole concept of a new relationship with aboriginal people. Here, in the Northwest Territories, it seems to me that we are so far ahead of other jurisdictions that, by helping in these areas, helping provide that kind of economic fiscal and political stability, where Nunavut can happen, where we can work out some of the treaty issues and self-government issues, in a way, that will look good on the federal government. The problem with each Minister looking at it through the prism of their ministry, they miss the big picture. I think what we have to offer as the Northwest Territories is a big picture win for Canada. To me, to frame it up that way is when I am talking about a package deal. There will be all the trade-offs within the package deal, but it won't fly unless the political underpinnings of the package deal fit with the objectives of the federal government. I am pretty convinced that you may win things like the $5 million for infrastructure because they are easy ones. They will say, "All right. We will give you $5 million. We have already given the Northwest Territories their bit." I am convinced that one single problem approach will seldom lead

to success. We get nickel and dimed every time we turn around.

Somewhere down the line, either we have some economic fiscal political stability going into 1999 or things could start falling apart here, as the Finance Minister knows, politically and otherwise. If it falls apart politically, then it falls apart economically. If it falls apart economically, then it falls apart physically. Ultimately, the federal government has to pick up all the pieces. The relatively small amount of money to them that they are harassing our government about in the long term will be absolutely nothing compared to the problem we are going to inherit if this land experiment called the Northwest Territories doesn't work. That is the message that has to get across at the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister's level. At the departmental level now, they've got too many other people chasing after their piece of the departmental pie. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.