Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you colleagues. Mr. Speaker, once again I would like to congratulate St. Patrick High School for their achievements and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for recognizing the potential for this program. I am sure the success will go a long way to ensure that future funding for this type of program is warranted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I today rise with a good news statement like my colleague Mr. Ootes, did. Mr. Speaker, it seems that it is not often that Members take the opportunity to congratulate the government on initiatives that are clearly successful. Today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the former Minister, Mr. Dent, who had the foresight to provide funding to St. Patrick High School for a two year pilot project dealing with successful transitions from school to work.

Of course, Mr. Speaker, even higher congratulations must go to St. Patrick High School. Their two year Bridges program was recently chosen as one of the best ten programs of its kind in Canada. Their program is being included in the study by Dr. Rick Freeze, a professor in the faculty of education in the University of Manitoba. The study is called Transitions, Implementing Training in Self-determination, and it is being sponsored by the Canadian Council for Exceptional Children and funded by Human Resources Development Canada. The purpose of the study is to explore the concept of self-determination in the context of meaningful graduation and successful transition from high school to the world of work. Post-secondary education, adult life and full citizenship for students with disabilities and socio-economic disadvantages. Dr. Freeze is visiting and studying sites which have the best practices and models for teaching. Supporting and implementing self-determination for young people in transition from school to adult life. Eventually a source book and handbook of the best practices and models will be developed through these consultations. I recently had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Freeze to contribute my thoughts and support for this program.

Mr. Speaker, even though the Northwest Territories has the highest pupil/teacher ratio population, our teachers are called upon to deal with the highest rates of special needs students. Their dedication and commitment is shining through. Thanks to the initiative, competence and enthusiasm of St. Patrick High School, this program is leading the way in Canada in making the transition from school to work more successful for our students. In short, Mr. Speaker, this is what excellence in education is all about.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was involved with one of these organizations some years ago. If my memory serves me correctly, it was reasonably complicated for non-professional people to provide the level of detail and criteria that were required by the department. I would draw it to the attention to the Minister that most of these organizations consist of volunteers, and the boards are volunteers and they do not necessarily have a lot of financial expertise available to them. If the boards have to employ some financial expertise to put these requests for proposals to the department, it takes away valuable funds that could be helping the board provide services to the groups they serve. I am wondering if the Minister would commit to, seeing as there is only a small number of them, five organizations, having his staff over the next year sit down with representatives from each of these five organizations and try and come up with something that would be reasonably straightforward and simple to make their application for funding.

I think it is fair to say that the department, with the resources they have and the personnel they have available to them, there is probably sufficient expertise there that they can and would be able to identify that the requests are reasonable even though they may not be in the exact detail the department requires. My question to the Minister is, would he consider sitting down with the representatives of these organizations, over the next year, to try and get something that is uniform and reasonably straightforward to fill out for funding? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could I ask the Minister how many organizations the department funds along the same lines as the NWT Mental Health Association, the non-profit organizations? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Have these voluntary groups that the department funds annually, were they taken into consideration when the departments put in for their interim appropriations because we are past our usual year-end of March 31st? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am wondering if the department would consider multi-year funding so that at least it would be an overlap, at least a couple of years, so they could work six months prior trying to get funding in place for an overlapping year. Would there be some consideration of that? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, is there any possibility that consideration could be given to these agencies such as the Canadian Mental Health Association that provide extremely valuable services to people in the territories? Is there any way that special consideration could be given to those organizations by moving their year-end up three months ahead of what the government is so that they know what their funding is for at least three months? I understand that a lot of them are having great difficulty because when they find out when the funds have been committed by the government, it is usually well into time periods when they have had to make commitments on office space and other services. Is there any way that the department can look at working with these organizations that are providing a valuable service, certainly I would anticipate much cheaper than the government can do, if there is any way that they can be assisted in the financial crunch that they run into at that time of the year? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The NWT Mental Health Association has provided a service of a helpline for a number of years. I believe their fiscal year is the same as the government's, March 31st. Has their funding been approved or is it contingent on the approval of the department's budget? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe most of these organizations, and we will use the Canadian Mental Health Association as an example, are they funded directly from the department or from the boards? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.