Charles Dent

Mr. Chairman, if experience serves me, I will have no doubt that there will be a significant amount of involvement by Yellowknife Members as this decision works forward. We are going to have to try to find some way to work collaboratively to deal with the needs of our constituents.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the department is going to be offering through the career centre over the next couple of days, some seminars to make sure that more people in the area are aware of what sorts of opportunities for training are going to be available in the oil and gas field in the next little while. There is very shortly a significant training proposal for federal monies that’s going to be made that includes a partnership that is made up of a number of aboriginal groups, including the Deh Cho First Nations, industry and this government to try and make sure that we can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the computer chargeback, there are eleven systems that are maintained, so that is the chargeback that we pay for the maintenance of those systems basically. Mr. Chairman, I am advised too that that includes contract payments for software support. When you have software you often have to pay the manufacturer for support as well, so that is included in there. But this is all basically related to the 11 different systems, like the CMAS, the student financial assistance programs, the income support programs. There are a number of different computer systems that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in terms of total funding in 2002-2003, we provided school boards with almost $6.5 million in total towards aboriginal language and culture programs. As I said, there hasn’t been a lot of consistency in how that has been spent, and there has been some concern about whether or not we can demonstrate to this Assembly that it has been spent in ways that Members would consider appropriate. Knowing that, I’ve talked to the Chairs of the boards and advised them that we need to work on a directive to make sure that the spending is able to be demonstrated to the...

Madam Chair, I'm sure that when we get to those pages in the budget I'll have it in front of me. I know that the Mangilaluk School is in the plan for some time in the future; I can't remember exactly which year it is being proposed at this point. But I am advised that we're starting to see planning monies in 2007-08. That is when we should start to see programming being designed for that school. I know that the Member has talked to me about this issue and how important it is to the community. We face so many serious problems with schools on piles that are collapsing, and we've just had a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would hope that we are at some point going to be able to take a look at this important type of programming throughout the territory. But in the budget that you have before you there is no extra funding to accommodate trades training in schools.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I don't disagree with the Member that NACC is an important and useful organization. The facility is quite unique and also important to have. But I think it's important to recognize that the contributions from this government involve the space there. If they had to lease that space it would probably cost $100,000 a year. That's provided by this government as a charity lease. This government does pay for the utilities and maintenance, and that costs about $48,000 a year, on top of the $30,000 grant. We are always prepared to listen to requests from...

Mr. Chairman, I haven’t set that up. I have been approached by three boards in Yellowknife who have an interest in a new school. We have quite a challenge ahead of us working with all of our partners here to determine how this money can be used to serve all of our needs.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can certainly advise the Member that we would be prepared to brief the committee this year. I expect that the programming will be decided and set by later this spring. I would expect then that over the course of the summer that the space requirements can be decided from that and determined. Then by fall we should have some options available for the space that we can present for consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, we would be happy to do it whichever way the committee would like. We have all of the information here and we can do it any way. It appears to me though, that Ms. Lee would prefer that I stick to mixing travel in as we go through each page, or separating it out as we go through each page, and I can do that too. For instance, on this page we are talking about under the directorate and administration, there is $73,000 for travel.