Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to call your attention to a matter that affects too many of our Northern residents. Mr. Speaker, I feel there is an urgent need to address the current level of literacy in the North. In particular, how literacy, or the lack of it, affects the inmates at our correctional centres.
Mr. Speaker, I was quite shocked to read that the average education level of an inmate in our correctional system is grade 6. Mr. Speaker, in many cases, the situation that inmates find themselves in can be closely related to the level of education they have.
Statistics show that the higher the level of education, individuals are less likely to get themselves in trouble with the law. Mr. Speaker, I suggest that an inmate with a level of education of grade 6 or less has already been sentenced to a hard life, regardless of any sentence imposed by the courts.
Mr. Speaker, I do not want to suggest that we write these individuals off. Rather, I suggest that we do everything we can to help them help themselves. Mr. Speaker, we are all aware that literacy affects the life choices that we make for ourselves.
I urge the Minister responsible to make a commitment to improve the level of literacy in our correctional centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause