Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to acknowledge an achievement that is going to be celebrated in Rae this week. Two hundred and fifty students and staff at Elizabeth Mackenzie School in Rae-Edzo have been dropping everything and reading for 15 minutes every single school day since the start of the current school year.

This Friday, March 3, 2000, the school will be celebrating the students' and staffs' accomplishments. They have read for over 250,000 minutes. That is more than a quarter of a million minutes of reading.

This 15-minute daily program, called DEAR, is a small part of the Dogrib Community Services Board's plan to focus on improving reading achievement throughout its schools in the Dogrib region.

A part of the celebration will be a feast for the students in the school gym. The feast will open with a traditional drum prayer, and elders will sit with the students to enjoy the feast together.

I would like to send congratulations to the students and staff of Elizabeth Mackenzie School. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause