Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you. I'm just trying to think, Mr. Speaker. We haven't taken the initiative to the point of it being a holiday. I think what we need to do is take advantage of a day like today, which is Heritage Day in much the same way as the Yellowknife school board who identified it as a day for students to participate in a heritage event. The communities and school boards can review this matter and expand the nature of the day that has been identified. But we have not identified a day in the year as a holiday. That point has been made to me before and I'm not certain we could afford the holiday, without it being part of an overall plan for the school year.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, there have been requests: specifically, the Metis for a Louis Riel day; the Gwich'in have indicated they would like a holiday for the anniversary of the signing of their agreement; and the Inuvialuit also. I wonder what the Minister has done with requests such as these, specifically where they are asking this government to designate a day for these groups to celebrate their achievements. Is anything being done with regard to these requests?

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The problem with trying to deal with the requests that have been made points to the very question the honourable Member raised. Each group wants a specific holiday and the problem is not that Members here don't want to recognize the invaluable contributions of those groups and people, but if you start identifying days which are separate, then there would be more than just one day. The point I was trying to get at is that we have identified Heritage Day in Canada and the thing now is to take advantage of that, even to the point where the school boards can identify it as a part of cultural event that includes the Metis and, in the case of the Gwich'in, the Gwich'in and the community in that surrounding region. It could be a much bigger event than just simply the matter that has been identified by the federal government and we need to work together to make certain that we can respond to the requests that have been made by the Metis Nation, the Gwich'in Nation, and other aboriginal organizations. I am prepared to work with them to see if we can bring together some consensus on this particular issue.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Just following up on that, then, and going back to my original question, will the Minister also be investigating the possibility of setting a date specific, this day in particular, the third Monday in February, as a holiday in the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you. Item 7, oral questions. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.