Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I am glad the department recognizes or acknowledges that literacy has an effect on health and social issues in the Northwest Territories.

Can the Minister point to any specific strategy that her department has in place that deals directly with illiteracy? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In light of our acknowledgement of the illiteracy rate of the Northwest Territories, the average of which is 15 percent, and some of our communities are as high as 61 percent, I was somewhat disillusioned during the review of the business plan for the department of Health and Social Services with their Health Promotion Strategy.

In their Health Promotion Strategy, they failed to recognize the negative effect that illiteracy has on the health and well being of members of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, they also did not recognize illiteracy as a critical issue affecting their department. I would argue, Mr. Speaker, that illiteracy contributes to the social and health problems that the department faces. If you cannot read all the shiny pamphlets in the world on the dangers of AIDS or sharing needles, they are not going to help you.

Can the Minister inform the House whether her department acknowledges the effects that literacy has on the health and well being of Northerners? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are many examples I can give you of failed lives due to literacy problems. One only has to glance at today's present system, or look at the homeless, drug addicted, or people in distress.

On a less sensational level, there are children struggling in school, where each year becomes more difficult because they are having problems reading. It holds them back in their intellectual development. At the end of their schooling, it leaves them with fewer options and a bleak future.

Literacy is a challenge for society today and the depth of the problems are multi-layered, Mr. Speaker. People who cannot read will have difficulties in their lives. They cannot get good pay and jobs. They cannot get good housing. Their children will suffer. They will suffer. Then it affects the generations coming behind them.

Also, Mr. Speaker, it affects the future of this Territory. If our people are not supported in literacy, they are getting short-changed and the Territory is losing out. There should be a more concerted effort on our part to spread reading and writing skills in the form of programs and dollars. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Aboriginal language has been such an important ingredient in preserving aboriginal culture. It could be in Wha Ti. It could be in Yellowknife. It could be in Hay River. It could be in Inuvik. It could be in Lutselk'e or Fort Resolution. It does not matter. That they hire language coordinators on a full-time basis to work with established groups that are working on the preservation and enhancement of aboriginal languages. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit his department to achieve or undergo a serious look for funding to address this very serious problem in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My colleague, Mr. Miltenberger, touched this a little bit earlier. It is to deal with the Metis contingency. There does not seem to be a recognition that Metis people do speak aboriginal languages. Their ancestors have spoken the language for generations. I am sure they would like to continue speaking the language for generations, but they do not qualify under these funding arrangements. Why is that? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. That will be nice. That will be a good comparison. I think I stated in the last session that there is $1 million for francophone language and $1.9 million for aboriginal languages, which works out to about $1,000 per francophone and about $100 per aboriginal. I would like to look at it differently from another table. I do not think that status has changed.

In the Akaitcho territory, there is a language strategy that has been developed. Mr. Miltenberger and I had met with Sabet Biscaye this morning to discuss it. Some of the information that was given to us was kind of disturbing. There was a letter that Mr. Miltenberger referred to earlier in the day, signed by Pauline Gordon, assistant deputy minister, Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Some of the words she used suggest that the funding is going to be reduced. There is no encouragement that funding is going to improve. We need funding to save our languages. The language is the key to culture. The culture of the Dene people is based on language. It is disturbing to see this. I will give you an example. I will read one quote;

"Where a reduction in funding is required due to a revision of the population estimates, 50 percent of this revision will be applied to next year's budget and full reduction will be applied to the following year's budget."

They are anticipating the budget being reduced, not increased. When we talk about the language community, what do we mean by that? Do we mean people that speak a language and it does not matter where they live? Or is it the community where a language is predominantly spoken? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. That is good to know. I would still like to see that information.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to touch on percentages. In the Northwest Territories, we seem to have a lot of percentages, especially in the aboriginal community. We have a high percentage of drop out rates in school, a high percentage of unemployment, a high percentage of health problems, high percentage of illiteracy. These are all areas that are very important.

Then we go to the other side, which is still very important. We have a very low percentage of high school graduates, a very low percentage of university graduates. Those are all concerns of mine. What is even a bigger concern, Mr. Chairman, is the very low percentage of aboriginal speaking people in the Northwest Territories. We are failing at educating them and we are failing them on preserving and enhancing it. A lot of that responsibility lies within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

I would like to give some suggestions for possible remedies to these problems. One of the areas I would like to ask the Minister about, and I will suggest a solution, if he gives me time with his quick answers. I have a table here that speaks to the aboriginal communities funding levels for language development. It is broken down into Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, Gwich'in, Inuvialuit, North Slavey, and South Slavey. It gives a percentage of the population based on census. They then compare it to another census. They give you a percentage of the total population and funding accordingly. I sure would like to see the French people moved out and be put in this table. If I could get that by tomorrow, it would be nice. Can the Minister commit to that for me please?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With the statistics we have in education where grade 10 seems to be the wall that many of our students are hitting, they are having a hard time getting beyond that. Our financial situation is cutting back our ABE budget by a large percentage, I think it is important that this kind training and education, the basics in the trades, are taught in junior high. That is where it should begin. If students are not getting beyond grade 9 and these are only taught in grade 10, they are not even getting that. They are really getting short-changed throughout.

The Minister responded to a question raised by my colleague, Mr. Roland, who stated that it seems kids are being pushed to the next grade level even though they do not qualify to keep in pace with their age and they are hitting the wall because of that. Mr. Ootes replied by stating the exact opposite.

The fact remains that grade 10 seems to be the wall that a large percentage of our population is hitting. I think it is important that junior high is used to a greater extent in the areas of trades training. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.