Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to top up on that question. I know in a lot of communities there are high incident rates of teen pregnancies and what not. I know that it has always been a conundrum for district education authorities to try and tackle and find ways to resolve and educate youth in that area. I was just wondering if it is a DEA role whether a school incorporates a program like that, Healthy Relationships and such.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would there be any change in the levels of funding for these programs?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to ask the Minister if he would be supportive of an initiative that would develop some kind of an endowment fund, something like the Chair was referring to in a different department, that industry could contribute to and education would support and work to develop some kind of a revolving fund, an endowment fund, that would allow students to seek career development, higher education, in other countries. Institutions would specialize in areas of real professional development and expertise.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just going back to some points that the Minister had made during some questions on his opening remarks on this education budget. The Minister had noted that the level of the number of students that have been enrolled in high schools in the NWT has declined over the past few years. I am wondering if the Minister can elaborate a little more on that in the context of are these students…I don’t see an enrolment change per se or a drop in population, but is the Minister aware that perhaps a significant number of families are now considering sending their students who...

Madam Chair, I thank the Minister for his passion in this topic.

---Laughter

Moving on to page 3 of the statement, I'm just wondering if the Minister could just give me a short briefing on what the department is talking about when they want to expand student assessment activities in relation to the aboriginal languages and culture-based directive.

Thank you very much for that information. Another quick question that a couple of the other Members were referring to insofar as other expenses go in the breakdown of other expenses; in particular, travel. I know that the government travel budget is still significantly high, according to a lot of Members, but a lot of the travel for a lot of the department members and their employees is directly related to their actual responsibilities in their positions, and increasing their performance, and carrying out a better service for the public. On the flipside of the coin, I also realize that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My first question would be a point on some clarification. I just want to ask the Minister if the costs of assets and services is because of the large reduction in the assets and services from 2002-03 to 2004-05. Is that just due to the department releasing all of these staff housing units to the NWT Housing Corporation, and that we would see this increase in the costs of assets and service in the Housing Corporation budget summary? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to thank the Minister for his answers, and I have no further questions on 2-39. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the Minister. Just for my own information on this transfer of the housing units to the NWT Housing Corporation, can the Minister provide the Members of the House with some information as to how many housing units we are actually referring to when we are looking at $2.6 million in assets?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was just going to use this opportunity in my Member’s statement to drive home some of the concerns I made yesterday in my Member’s statement in the House. Just to express some of my concerns with the government’s lack of accountability with regards to increasing the number of aboriginals hired to senior management positions.

As far as I’m aware, Mr. Speaker -- and I’m sure a lot of the MLAs of previous governments are also aware -- this government is not meeting the expectations for aboriginal hiring in senior management positions and has no tools or...