Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister try to figure out a sum that he thinks might be the amount slated for aboriginal use for post-secondary education? The reason I ask this is I can see, with land claims being settled down in the Mackenzie Valley, the transfer of responsibility for post-secondary education, and for that matter, education as a whole, will be negotiated. There has to be some kind of understanding of a number that First Nations groups can use to start negotiating. Without a number, where do you start? If the Minister could find out how much funding is available for aboriginal post-secondary education and education in the Northwest Territories? Thank you very much.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Finance. It is related to an earlier question I had. Can the Minister of Finance answer a question on federal government funding on post-secondary education for aboriginal status Dene? Can the Minister tell me how much funding is provided to the Government of the Northwest Territories for aboriginal post-secondary education?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also have questions on the Student Financial Assistance Program for the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment. As the Minister is no doubt aware, and alluded to during a response to an earlier question, money that is available to band councils to provide post-secondary education to its memberships is routed through this government.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us the amount of funding the territorial government receives to educate aboriginal post-secondary students in accordance with their treaty rights?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (Translation starts) I will be speaking in my language now. If you would all put your earpieces on I will start.

Yesterday, Mr. Kakfwi, our Premier, put two statements...

We talked about how we will work with our children to keep them in school. In this part of the Northwest Territories ... when we took our treaty rights... the way we were to be educated, and to look after our health care, medication, all of these were promised to us.

But as it is, people from this Territory, when they are going to school, they are not always successful. There are some students who go south, but only approximately 50 percent of them succeed.

This money that is supposed to go to our education, I do not think the government is making proper use of it. We wish that we would educate more of our people, but the way I see it, that is not the situation, and many people have mentioned that.

So, for the future, that is why I will ask the question this morning to the Finance Minister about this situation. Thank you. (Translation ends)

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was also appreciative of the statement by Mr. Kakfwi as the Premier. I think we all agree these are the golden objectives we would all like to achieve. I would say there is a lot of work that needs to be done towards that end. I think some of the questions and statements made in the last couple of days are reflective of some of the problems that we see in the communities and regional centres.

I was speaking on the language issue yesterday. The aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories, like every part of North and South America, have gone through a tremendous change in the last 100 years. For a lot of people, the last 50 years. We went through an industrial age, a communication age, and now we are hitting a digital age.

They have cut government programs, trying to cut our languages, our cultures, our way of life. They have even tried to take the lands away, and why not? Those kinds of strains have had a negative impact on the communities. We are learning and working through this. As my colleague, Ms. Lee indicated, not all news is bad. Not all of the issues are bad. There is a lot of good news out there and I will be glad to recognize a lot of them. I recognize quite a bit in our discussions, our plan workshops... I have mentioned a few.

Looking at the future, I think it looks good. I think this government has to start seriously looking at devolving some of the responsibilities, especially in the social envelope, towards the regional and community governments.

The statistics we have clearly indicate we are not doing the job we could be doing. We could do a better job. We have been saying that for 20 years or so. I think we can start transferring some programs in the areas of education, health and social programs to regional governments.

If you look in the North Slave, the Dogrib region, they have responsibilities for those envelopes and they are producing better results. I think there are people in my area, Akaitcho Treaty 8, who want to look at something like that. But there are roadblocks up there. As Mr. Krutko said, we have to start dropping those roadblocks and move forward.

I think they have a better idea of how they want to do it and we have to give them that responsibility with the necessary resources. I think they will do a better job, which will leave more time for capital expenditures. Right now, we are in a catch-22 situation. We spent all of our time and energies on social programs when history and other indicators have proven that if you have a strong, economic community, you have better, healthier people. If we cannot create that because we are so busy with the social programs, then maybe we should give the social programs to those that are directly affected.

I would like to pick up on a question my honourable colleague had asked. I think the Minister for Youth...that is a great idea. Healthy communities start with the youth. Right now, the youth are in great trouble. In my communities, there are no facilities or resources available for youth. They have no place to go. The peak hours for crime are between 7:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m., and there is nowhere for youth in our communities to do anything in that time.

Mind you, there are many communities in the North that have the same problem. There is no money available for them. I just received a call from one of my constituents wanting money for a group of youths who are travelling to Hay River during carnival to perform a Metis dance, but will not have any money to get to Hay River. That is a two-hour drive.

I will gladly work with the Minister responsible for Youth in developing some policies to see where we could help the youth. I think we have to have strong education. Right now, our graduation rate in the small communities is less than 20 percent. That is unacceptable. Everything we have looked at in the last few days says the social envelope takes up most of our budget, yet I do not see too much being done at the community level to fix those problems.

I think there has to be more money put into programs for youth. Sports and recreation is another area. Communities may have a $3 million arena, but no money to run it. People in the communities do not have money to pay for their children's hockey equipment, or even to use the facilities. There has to be more money invested in youth, sports and recreation, cultural development, language development, and learning to use modern day equipment and tools, like the Internet.

I was just reading a speech given by a CBC executive. In less than ten years, people will be able to directly communicate with their television, asking the television to see what kind of program they want to watch. If you are doing research on a particular topic, you shut off your television and go to work. Twelve hours later, you come back, turn on the television, and it will tell you how many programs relate to your research. You have to be able to educate the people in the communities and make them comfortable using technology. Right now, people are not comfortable using technology because they are scared of it.

Kids leave Lutsel K'e with a grade 10 education. When they arrive in a place like Fort Smith, Hay River, or Yellowknife, their grade 10 education is equivalent to a grade 8 education. Even then, they are graduated for statistical reasons.

Right off the bat, they are behind the eight ball. You have to be able to improve that. There is a lack of control in hiring and retaining professionals in the communities. Local boards are spending an obscene amount of money in marketing and advertising, where those dollars could be going to programs and services where it is badly needed.

I will give you an example. One teacher in Lutsel K'e, I will not mention names, but apparently he wrote a nasty letter to the paper, putting everyone in the community down. Kids were crying when they arrived home. When they had a parent-teacher interview, somehow somebody got into his desk. He was drawing very pornographic material of kids. This guy had a history of mental problems. He was hired out of Toronto while he was unemployed. There were no checks and balances. He fell through the cracks and was somehow put in charge of young, vulnerable kids.

In our recent history, we can look at some of the stories from the High Arctic, the Western and Eastern Arctic, dealing with child sexual abuse and the sexual abuse of women. We have to be very cognizant of who we hire from the outside. We cannot do that unless we have control of the hiring process.

We could look to the future and say that land claims are going to be settled and what not, so we will wait. Currently, I believe we are getting monies on behalf of all people of the Northwest Territories. We have to start applying those monies where they are needed, which is at the community level. I have always said that government has to not only work harder, but it has to work smarter.

The process of dividing funds by population is not the best solution. If there is a strong problem in one area, you should deal with that problem before it gets any bigger. You do not just say here is $3,000 based on the population of your community. $3,000 does not even buy a laptop computer.

I will restate my commitment to work with the Minister responsible for Youth because that is the future, and it is a problem area in my constituency. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was going to make a statement on another matter, but my colleagues seem to be reading my notes and making those statements beforehand.

Today, I am very happy the community of Lutsel K'e, along with Rae Lakes and Wha Ti, will be included in funding for Internet access. This is possible through the community access program funded by the federal government. Perhaps this government can get involved with the nurturing of this and similar programs that have been introduced by other agencies.

It is programs like this that will bring small, isolated communities such as Lutsel K'e into the communication age. The sooner this is done, the better equipped we will be to be true partners in the Canadian and global economies. Today's global economy is so important. People can learn about each other and their land, culture and environment. The Internet is becoming a primary tool for this.

They can use this information and technology for everything from tourism development to attracting investment for areas of our economy. It will also educate our people about other cultures, and at the same time gain an appreciation for our own cultures, that are in dire need of revival.

I look forward to visiting the communities of Lutsel K'e and Fort Resolution with Ms. Ethel Blondin-Andrew, to get an appreciation of this and other programs, along with the challenges facing these communities. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I do not think the Minister answered my question. The question is out there. People have asked me this question.

Since you are talking about school programs, I am wondering how many French schools are there in the Northwest Territories? How many French students are they catering to? How much does it cost to build a school and how much does it cost to run the school?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. According to a cooperation agreement signed between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government, January 5, 2000, funding for the year 2000-2001 for aboriginal languages was agreed to $1.9 million. For French language, it was $1.6 million. If you break that down to individuals, there is approximately 20,000 aboriginal people and approximately 1,000 French people. If you break the funding down, you have approximately $1,600 per francophone and $100 per aboriginal.

I am just wondering, Mr. Speaker, what is the real need here? Is it the $1,600 per francophone? Is that the real need for language to be preserved and enhanced or is it $100?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me what are those official languages?