Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak about an issue which I have raised in this House a number of times. This concern relates to the cultural inclusion programs in the schools. This is one of the major concerns raised by the people of my riding over the past two years. The general feeling is we are trying to push our children through a system, which conflicts in many ways with our own cultural beliefs. The manner in which our culture is trying to be taught to our children is not sufficient. Our traditional life-style or culture was never taught inside buildings, let alone classrooms. They were taught on site, which means they were taught on the land. The basic idea behind this is to remove the culture inclusion program from the schools and transfer them to local ethnic committees.
This move will give back to the aboriginal peoples the ability to teach their children their traditional lifestyle. There are many occasions where young people do not have anything to fall back on when they have exhausted their imported skills. Mr. Speaker, many young people learn their traditional skills in an environment which is not conducive to their culture, therefore they try to fall back on their own culture by trying out their abilities on the land.
However, because their knowledge of the land has been limited to what they learned inside buildings, they are not able to succeed. When young people go out on the land, the parents end up worried about their hunters, rather than looking forward to welcomed meat -- which by the way, supplements much of their social assistance.
I know that the Department of Education has many concerns about the ability to insure students who are not within their realm. However, I know the Minister responsible has encountered a number of very complex problems and has been able to resolve them. I believe he would be able to find a way around this issue. There has to be a way around this issue. There are a number of programs currently run by organizations such as the YWCA, Boy Scouts of Canada and Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps which are run on the land.
I also know that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs would appreciate knowing that they will have less to expend on searches.