Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to make a statement on the closure of Akaitcho Hall, to follow-up where my friend, Mr. Gargan, left off, and to lend support to his concerns for the closure. I realize it may already be too late. The door has been closed, but, what I wanted to say about it yesterday, Mr. Gargan said in equal or better terms than I could have.
I've had a long association and a very close attachment to Akaitcho Hall, like many other Members in this House. Some have even attended there and my friend, Mr. Ningark, has children who are attending that school. I went there in 1958. That was the year that school opened. The philosophies of the residence and the attached Sir John Franklin School were good philosophies for the time and, I believe, they still are to this day. It offered persons like myself who were perhaps was not as good a student as I could have been in the environment I was in, an opportunity for me as a young adult to go to a school and learn a certain amount of discipline and a certain amount of self-awareness that would help me get through school.
Many of the people who are in this legislature today are products of, in part, Akaitcho Hall and Sir John Franklin. While I was there, Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to meet and blend with many people from around the territories, from east to west. Relationships and friendships that were developed in those early days still hold us together to this day. No matter where we go we will meet and be greeted by people who had originally gone to Akaitcho Hall.
I just wanted to say those few words in support of the concerns that parents have that this opportunity will be taken away from their children if this place is closed.