Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to speak about a concern that one of my constituents has with respect to the support being provided for her child, who is in need of special needs assistance at Range Lake North School.

Mr. Speaker, last fall I spoke about my experience of job shadowing a special needs assistant at the Range Lake North School, her name being Hayley Morris, who has done an amazing job in giving support to two children with autism at the school. I thought that, and I said so at the time, the reason why these children have shown so much progress, and Kelton specifically was able to get a great deal of benefit out of the inclusionary policy, was that the teacher was very dedicated and their relationships were so strong.

It was for this reason that I was absolutely shocked when I found out that the Yellowknife #1 District has had to move this teacher to another school, and this was not known until five days before the end of the school year. I have tried all I can, along with the parents and the teachers involved, the administration and the Minister to see if this decision could be revisited, without any success at all. I am told that part of this has to do with lack of funding in this area and the budgetary problems that the board had experienced, as well as the fact that there are just not enough trained personnel within the district.

Mr. Speaker, I do not know what else to do other than to say that we have to acknowledge that we have failed miserably in this process. My question is, when we have approved additional funding for special needs, why do I have to experience this over and over again?

I just got a letter saying that the district is reviewing the whole policy, when I would think they should have that in place before they had the money. I would like to urge the Minister to work with the board to address this very serious issue being experienced in all of the Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.