Thank you, Mr. Speaker, colleagues. This past weekend, on Saturday, I had the opportunity to represent the Honourable Richard Nerysoo at a retirement get together for Jean Paul Grimard. Jean Paul Grimard was a school teacher, very well-known in the Fort Smith area. He taught math, physics and computers at the JB Tyrrell School and the PW Kaeser High School. He's been a teacher in the north for 30 years. He came from Prud'homme, Saskatchewan. He is from a French-Canadian family, one of 11 boys and girls from that family.
He took up teaching and for his first teaching assignment, he was interviewed by Gordon Devitt to go teach in the Baffin. In the interview, Mr. Devitt asked him what religion he was and he said he was Catholic. He replied that he couldn't work in the Baffin because they were all Protestant and he had to go to the west, so he went to Fort Smith, which was our good fortune.
He was very well-known in the community and he tutored a lot of students in the off hours. He taught during the day but if you needed any help with math, physics or computers, he was always there to help. Mr. Speaker, you will probably recall that I was at the adult school there later on in my life, trying to get my grade 12 so I could go to university. I needed some help in math and Mr. Grimard was right there to pitch in. I had the pleasure of being a student of his for a short period of time and, just recently, my son was also tutored by him, too.
When I talked on behalf of the Minister, I told the people there about his life and there were a good number of people from Fort Smith at the reception. They rose to give him a standing ovation for his 30 years of dedication to the Government of the Northwest Territories and the people of the Northwest Territories as a teacher. These days, it's very rare to have that kind of commitment. I would certainly like to say, on behalf of the people I represent, thank you to Mr. Grimard for his long service.
---Applause