Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give an overview of concerns raised by the Baffin, Kitikmeot, and Keewatin education authorities. Both the Nunavut Implementation Commission model and the Nunavut Education Council's model have been discussed by the existing education councils in Baffin, Keewatin and Kitikmeot and their staff. The decision of
the GNWT to proceed with the Keewatin pilot project for infrastructure transfer as part of the community empowerment initiative and the procedures used to do this have caused concern among the education councils and have underlined the many implications the GNWT community empowerment model would have for education governance and administration. The education councils take issue with the lack of consultation with both the education councils and DEAs and with the community empowerment model's implications for education governance and administration. This is illustrated by the process in which the infrastructure pilot project was introduced in the Keewatin and implications that program funding transferred may follow infrastructure transfers without due consultation. Two, the incongruence between existing legislation of the GNWT, for example, the Education Council Act, the proposed arrangement and education governance and financing under the GNWT community empowerment initiative. Three, the GNWT's express commitment to community empowerment on the one hand and lack of implementation of the process which will ensure that community members can be well informed and can make decisions about which responsibilities in the communities we will assume and what structures will be in place to guarantee that these responsibilities will be met.
Mr. Speaker, it would seem more questions from the stakeholders on the Keewatin pilot project have been raised. I will ask the Minister about them later today during question period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause