Thank you, Madam Speaker. I feel I must rise to respectfully correct the honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on certain statements he made in this House on Friday, February 25, about the Special Committee on Education during discussion in committee of the whole of his discussion paper, Towards a Strategy to 2010. I was not present in the House that day, but the unedited Hansard shows that Mr. Nerysoo, in responding to general comments from Mr. Dent criticizing the lack of detail in his discussion paper, referred to the Special Committee on Education and stated that, "It took them almost two years and almost $3 million to do the work." Mr. Nerysoo went on to say, "What that committee took two years to do, we did in one year."
Madam Speaker, with respect, as a former Member of that special committee -- who, along with Ms. Cournoyea the only other sitting Member in this House who had the privilege of serving on that committee of the 9th Assembly -- I do feel obliged to correct the honourable Minister and set the record straight.
First, as to whether the Minister's excellent discussion paper did as much as that committee. Madam Speaker, here is what the special committee did, and it was the first committee of this legislature to be so active: it held no less than 73 meetings in 34 communities. We conducted excellent research and we prepared draft legislation.
While the committee was in existence, we were asked to and did recommend on the contentious issue of much needed reform of the student financial assistance regulations. We produced no less than 49 detailed recommendations which led, among other things, to the establishment of divisional boards of education, teaching and learning centres, field-based teacher education and the Arctic College. We even recommended the establishment of what we called the secretariat for learning under the Minister of Education to coordinate all training and learning within the GNWT. The recommendations were accompanied by a detailed implementation strategy and timetable.
Finally, Madam Speaker, the Special Committee on Education did not cost $3 million, as the Minister stated. It did all that work for just under $1 million.
Madam Speaker, I recognize that the Minister is proud of his hard work on the discussion paper, Towards a Strategy to 2010, however I would respectfully suggest to him that it may be a little too early to determine whether his discussion paper will have the same impact as the report of the Special Committee on Education. Thank you.
---Applause