Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Again, we are into statistics and 105 percent sounds like more than we are entitled to. Could the Minister maybe explain how the K to 9 students in Yellowknife are receiving 75 percent of the funding and the 10 to 12 receive 100 percent of the funding? Could the Minister tell me how he can turn those figures around to make it 105 percent of what we are entitled to because it baffles my mind? Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, yesterday the Minister talked about graduation rates and he mentioned the number of statistics. I think we have all realized in our time here that you can get statistics to say whatever you wish them to say. The Minister tells us that the graduation rate is up. I do not doubt that, that the graduation rate is up. I guess my concern is, is at what expense is the graduation rate up? I have had a number of concerns brought to me by employers who have certain expectations about what a high school diploma or a grade 9 or a grade 10 education is. With the advent of social advancement, I think we are not only doing our students a disservice by telling them that they have something more than they really have and we are doing a disservice to potential employers who have certain expectations of what employees can do in their positions. I think it is important that be recognized by the department and serious consideration given to this phenomena that they call social advancing or social passing. I think they are not doing anyone a good service in that area. I talked yesterday about the potential of recognizing much earlier on, what individual students' capabilities are and designing programs and life skills to better adapt to that individual's abilities and to give them the skills to make them productive in society and, take emphasis off of an academic education if the individual is not capable of attaining that and to give much more serious consideration to the social passing, if you will.

Something that has bothered myself in my short time here at the Legislature, and it is a sore point with members of my constituency. It is a shortage of funding that is provided to my community. My understanding is that all high schools in the Northwest Territories receive 100 percent funding. Where the high schools in Yellowknife receive quite a bit less. I know the Minister is aware of that situation and my question to him is, has the department given any consideration to make what Mr. Krutko, and the Minister himself have talked about, a fair and equitable resources to all areas of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank the Minister for that. Could the Minister indicate when his officials will have reviewed the concerns that I have brought to his attention and report back to the House? He mentioned earlier he would do that, but did not set a time limit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister noted, I had addressed him with by three different titles, I can assure him that a number of times in the hallways there are more titles that are contributed towards him. Mr. Speaker, my second question is, the Minister mentioned that when health was transferred from the federal government the Public Service Act was looked at as to be constitutional. Was that specific part in the act looked at or was it just the act in general as to meeting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in regard to the association part? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Honourable Member of the Department of Finance with the responsibilities for the Power Corporation, the Honourable Mr. Dent. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I tabled a petition signed by over 100 employees of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. These employees wanted the freedom to choose their employees' association rather than having their representation dictated to them by the government under the Public Service Act. As I stated yesterday, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom guarantees freedom of association as a fundamental freedom of every Canadian citizen. Our Public Service Act expressly denies that right, not only for the Power Corporation employees but for all government employees other than teachers. Employees may choose to remain with the UNW but it must be their choice, not the government's.

My question, Mr. Speaker, is to the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board. Given that the Public Service Act appears to be in direct contradiction to the charter, will the Minister make a commitment to amend the act to ensure that employees covered by the act can exercise freedom of association? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like my colleagues before me, I would also like to acknowledge the numbers of parents, students and teachers who have, over the past, expressed their concerns about how education is going in the

Northwest Territories and the lack of funding in that particular area. I feel very inadequate here, as a politician, trying to sit here and bring a resolution to the concerns that have been brought to me. I know that much of the resolution to the problems in education, the answers are right in the gallery here today and also in the classrooms all over the Northwest Territories. I think it would be very beneficial for the department and Minister to listen intently to what they are saying and also to take account of what the Members of this Legislative Assembly are also telling him because we get that feedback from our constituents. I think it is important, Mr. Chairman, that the public understands the process of how the Department of Education is before the committee today. I think many times we take it for granted because we are reasonably familiar with how we get here that the public may be also.

Mr. Chairman, for the interest of the public, the business plans for each of the departments are presented to committees of the government and Education, Culture and Employment, that department is presented to the social programs and the committee Members on that program are Mrs. Groenewegen, Mr. Erasmus and Mr. Morin. After the business plans are reviewed by the standing committees, the department takes that information back, prepares a draft budget which again is presented to the committee, Social Programs Committee, that is also reviewed by the committee, recommendations made to the department and hopefully as many of those recommendations are incorporated into the Main Estimates which we deal with in the House today. Another little statistic I think that is worth mentioning, the process by which this department is reviewed is the same as every other department and this committee does not have the ability to transfer monies from one department to another. All we have is the ability to make recommendations or delete funds. We do not have the ability to move funds from one department to another.

Madam Chairperson, we hear much talk and feedback about the high pupil/teacher ratio. I am not so sure that the high pupil/teacher ratio would be a problem in a normal circumstance but I believe in the Northwest Territories we are not dealing with something that is normal or that should be acceptable. I think the high pupil/teacher ratio comes about mainly from the conditions that the teacher finds themselves in when they come to the classroom. I think it has been acknowledged by the department and by teachers across the territories regarding the numbers of learning difficulties that we have, particularly in the area of the problems which have been caused to the children's minds through the misuse of alcohol creating alcohol effect and fetal alcohol syndrome. I think that is probably where the largest problem comes for the teacher in the classroom and I believe that we have to take some of the pressure off the teachers. I think the Department of Education has to take some pressure off the teachers and if that means additional resources, reallocation of resources from within departments, I think that really has to be looked at.

The Minister did mention in his opening comments and I quote, "it is said that every dollar you invest in a child with difficulties there is a future savings of seven dollars". I think we have all realized the accuracy of that statement. The Minister also makes comments that the fact that if we do spend more money we have only so much resources available to the department and we are spending it as best they can. I believe that is an accurate statement on the department and the Minister's predicament. They are doing the best they can. I believe that the department has got to look at some method of dealing with the difficulties that the teachers are finding in the classroom and maybe take some pressure off the teachers by not demanding higher graduation rates. I mean we have to face the fact that not all children that go to school will be successful in completing a grade 12 education. We have to accept that there has been damage that has been done to children, as I mentioned earlier, through the irresponsible use of alcohol that has created situations that the best teaching system will not contribute to making rocket scientists out of some of our students. That is not to say that we can not prepare them the best we can within their capabilities to be functioning adults in each of our communities. So I think the department has got to take some pressure off on the expectations of trying to increase these numbers unrealistically. I think there is also pressure put on the school boards and the teachers in the classroom by parents. Parents' expectations that their child should be able to graduate and in some cases this is not realistic.

The Minister talked earlier about grade extension and I think something that I do not have any statistics on but I would be interested in knowing how many of the students that do go on to further education become professionals, doctors, lawyers, dentists, teachers, nurses, how many of those go back to their own community? I suspect those numbers are not large. I believe in this day and age, Madam Chairperson , we have to accept the fact that you go where the work is. The sooner we teach our students that you do have to go to where the work is and that there is a good potential that you may not be employed in your home community. I think that with creating grade extensions in some of the smaller communities, I think you are creating an unrealistic expectation that you will be able to stay there for the rest of your life. I think that was a reasonable expectation years ago but in today's society you have to go to where the jobs are at. I think young people before they are set in their ways have an opportunity, and maybe through education that is one method that can be used to get young people moving out of their community. It does not mean that they can not go back but at least they will have the opportunity before they get too set in their ways that there is a life outside of their own community.

As I said, Madam Chairperson, I think there are many, many areas that the department has to look at reallocation of short dollars that they have. The Minister, as I refer back to it again, said there was a shortage of funds and if we had more money, yes he could put more money into different areas. I think from that statement I would encourage the Minister and the department to priorize and I know that we may well say that it is nice to have money at the grade level, it is nice to have resources and money to do adult education but if you are only doing half a job in one area, I do not think that in the long run you are going to be successful. So I would be encouraging the Minister and his department to look at doing a good job where I believe it is most important, right at the beginning, and we have to ensure that students in school continually get the message repeated on a daily basis if necessary, that you better take advantage of the education that is provided to you today because you may not have that opportunity to get it later on. Madam Chairperson, I recognize that my time has expired but I will have questions of the Minister during the line by line. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with a matter of employees of the NWT Power Corporation dissatisfaction over their representation by the UNW. Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 108 signatures and the petition requests, we the undersigned, would like to express our absolute dissatisfaction with the Union of Northern Workers in the Northwest Territories. We feel that services we pay for have not been provided by this union, therefore, we further express our interest to seek and explore alternative representation within the Canadian Labour of Congress. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, later today I will be tabling a petition signed by over a hundred employees of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. I would like to give a little background to the issue raised in the petition. Under our Public Service Act, the Union of Northern Workers is designated as the employees' association for all employees of the Northwest Territories. The employees have no right under Northwest Territories legislation to decide who will most effectively represent their interests.

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of association as a fundamental freedom of each Canadian citizen. Our Public Service Act expressly denies that right. I have raised this issue before with the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. I appreciate that he has said that he would be willing to change our act if he was convinced that a majority of Power Corporation employees wanted changes. Mr. Speaker, the petition that I will be tabling today bears the signatures of a majority of the unionized Power Corporation employees in our territory. These employees all want the ability to explore alternative representation. I believe the Minister's condition has now been met.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to point out that even without this petition, the Public Service Act should still be changed for all government workers. Employees must have freedom of association, the right to choose, at all times, not just when the Minister agrees. Employees may or may not choose to stay with the UNW at any time, but it must be their choice, without interference from outside parties.

Mr. Speaker, I trust that once this petition is tabled, the Minister will act with the utmost urgency to bring the necessary amendments to the Public Service Act to the House. As he is aware, negotiations are ongoing and this issue is extremely time sensitive. Changes must be made now or the Power Corporation employees' rights will be denied for a further three years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, Mr. Erasmus has talked a lot about the need for consistency and, Madam Chairperson, my understanding is that we presently have a process where students in these grades have to sit departmental examinations prepared by, in my understanding, the Department of Education in the province of Alberta. The motion talks about ensuring consistency in curriculum delivery and an equitable evaluation of our students across the Northwest Territories. I think this is an extremely important position that the department and the government as a whole should be taking. We have a number of students in our school system that within the territories we will not be able to always find jobs for the students. It is a common fact that in today's society you have to be prepared to move to where the jobs are. If we are out of step in our consistency with other provinces or jurisdictions, it is going to make it more difficult for the students in the Northwest Territories to compete for higher education and also for jobs in other parts of the country. Any initiative, Madam Chairperson, that is going to encourage and provide that consistency to give the students in the Northwest Territories an equal opportunity to compete with other jurisdictions, I am very pleased to support.

Madam Chairperson, I thank my honourable colleague from the Social Programs Committee for moving this motion and like him, I also hope that all Members that are with us today support this motion and that indeed the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the Honourable Michael Miltenberger, MLA for Thebacha hears what is being said and the implications of not acting on the motion. Thank you, Madam Chairperson, for the time allotted to me.