Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 9-28, on the Sahtu implementation of $20,000. Could the Minister give us a quick look into that item? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask the department a question, Mr. Chairman. I was in Norman Wells and they asked about their museum. They said that it was in the government's books and all of a sudden it disappeared, and they want to know what is happening with the Norman Wells museum. I don't know if it's infrastructure dollars or program dollars, I didn't do enough checking. I said I would raise it with the Minister and I think this is the appropriate time to raise it with this department. The museum in Norman Wells is really nice, and hopefully one day I will be in that museum...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to make some comments with regard to the early childhood program. Before I make a comment, maybe I will ask a question. When was the last time the Education Act was reviewed, amended or looked upon by the Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Minister. I had one partner in the Sahtu communities who said they were interested in looking at an initiative where they can start training our young people, men and women, in terms of the heavy equipment in terms of mechanics and driving and so forth. That's something that maybe after this we can have some discussions. They were very interested, and they said we could look at this and this government to get the show on the road and start training our people here.

The other point I want to make to the Minister, Mr. Chairman, is there was a company in...

Thank you very much. I just wanted to also mention the importance of supporting our children and youth in schools. I was really pleased to read the increase of the enrolment of our schools from 1998-99 to 2003-04. There is a significant increase in our schools, and the department must be doing something right or something that the communities and our schools are doing right together to get our students to that level of enrolment. It shows that the students, teachers, and the communities are doing something right that got our kids into school. The numbers are up and we need to continue to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would also like to let the committee know we are going to do this through teamwork, and my honourable colleague from Nunakput, Calvin Pokiak, will conclude the report.

The committee met on February 23rd, 2004, with the Minister and his officials to consider the 2003-2004 draft main estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

The committee notes an estimated $213.705 million for operations expenses, an increase of $2.685 million over last year’s numbers and a total of $13.430 million for capital infrastructure for 2004-2005.

The committee is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance regarding his statement to the House this afternoon. I don't know if Santa Claus is at the North Pole or in Ottawa in terms of the goodies and the good news that he has given to the Northwest Territories in the response from the federal Member of Parliament. In terms of the Minister's statement, I believe that the budget will contribute positively to the overall situation in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister if he could explain in plain language his belief on how this budget will contribute...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to ask the question again and do my job before I call it a night, about the Norman Wells museum. I see it in the books here and I would like to somehow communicate to the community. They indicated to me that they were in the books somehow and all of a sudden it disappeared and they are scratching their heads and wondering why. I want to see about this issue in terms of getting this back on the books for Norman Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was what I was alluding to, to give some hope to the people of Norman Wells and all the people in the Northwest Territories. I just wanted to say that to the Minister, and I did my job with asking these questions. So I'll follow Sandy's suit; that's it, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Minister. The reason I ask is because education and the curriculum from K to 12 is important. The people in the small communities have a lot of things happening and there are a lot of things that need to be taught to kids in schools such as the land claim agreements that we settled in the Sahtu in 1993. That’s a living document that’s going to be used by future generations and parents are talking about how the land claims document needs to be taught in our school. We need to start educating our children on what it says in that document because that’s...