Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand the intent of the motion is to focus on the principle of excellence within the educational system and to monitor the achievements of northern students, to continually strive to ensure northern students achieve excellence in their studies. I have no problem with that philosophy but I have real problems with the level of that philosophy, if that is what you are going to call it, because, Mr. Chairman, perhaps in a community the size of Fort Providence, that level of excellence is not at the same kind of level that you will see in Yellowknife.

So we can talk about philosophy all we want, but if we don't change that level of excellence, then all the philosophies in the world won't achieve that. I think that my whole point is that I know the intent of the motion. In Fort Providence, that level of excellence is okay for Fort Providence. In Yellowknife, it is okay for that level to be achieved by the students in Yellowknife. In Fort Simpson, it is different. In Inuvik, perhaps it is different. In the High Arctic, maybe a whole different level is expected over there. It's a good message, but I think what we have to look at is right now there's a message that, as far as northern students go, they are not the best in Canada. At the same time, we are paying the best salaries of anywhere in Canada for teachers. For that kind of money, we should be getting our money's worth, but we're not. Even though there's a high level being spent, very little is being allocated to programs. A major portion of that goes towards teachers' salaries, their two paid trips and everything else.

I know what the intent of the motion is. But the same thing happens every year. After students achieve a certain amount of excellence, we send them to Fort Simpson or Yellowknife. Or, maybe they stay in the community. What I'm saying, Mr. Chairman, is if we're going to focus on anything, we should be focusing on bringing the level of education standards up so our students can do a bit better when we have another national test.

They chose some of the top students to take the tests. Perhaps we should be sending other messages out, asking that they do tests, maybe in Fort Simpson, Fort Providence and Hall Beach of the same level to find out if the level would go even further down.