Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I read a bit of a disturbing clipping in the media today that was talking about graduation rates across the Northwest Territories and the fact that they were coming down. This is something that I've been tracking for some time, Mr. Speaker. It's a concern of mine. Indeed, I think it's a concern of all of ours.
I've looked at my own community, Yellowknife, and noticed that the graduation rate since 1999 to 2000 has gone from about 64 percent, then down to 59 percent the next year and last year down to about 57 percent, Mr. Speaker.
This is a concern for all of us. It's something that we need to certainly be studying. I'm not going to stand here today and say that this Minister, this Department of Education, Culture and Employment and all the good folks working for the department are responsible for these numbers, but they are certainly accountable. This is the kind of information that I expect the ministry to present to us and I think it's on the ministry to engage us in a discussion about our performance so that we can get to the root of this problem and seek to address the issues that are causing it.
A number of my colleagues in this House throughout the last week have been talking about this kind of thing. I think it's vital, Mr. Speaker, that we own up to this and seek to address it. It's important that we also look at best practices.
I would note in the regional centres that there has been a bit of an anomaly, a blip from 1999 to 2000 when we saw our number of graduates go from 49 up to 73 the next year, and then back to 49. I'm wondering if the department has looked at this anomaly to determine if, in fact, this is accurate or if they can point their finger at something that went on right this year that we can seek to repeat. It's important that we do, Mr. Speaker.
I recently, in the mail, got a study on education policy. It's something that the Fraser Institute puts out. I thought it was interesting for a number of reasons. It's interesting because it assesses performance across the provinces. Typically, I think we'd tend to believe that the more money a province spends on education, the better the performance of its students. It seems intuitive, Mr. Speaker. It's not necessarily the case.
Something that was really interesting was that Alberta, which consistently scores academically at the top in terms of provinces, does not come on top in terms of two other categories often associated with high achievement, those being small classes and more spending on education. So what is it, Mr. Speaker? We've had a lot of discussion about PTR and the need to address student needs.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to see unanimous consent to conclude my statement.