Mr. Chairman, I'm not aware of any recent educational studies, but I know that a special committee of this Legislative Assembly spent a considerable amount of time travelling around the North talking to people about what was important to them. The inclusion of language and culture in the schools was considered important. We do try to reflect that as much as possible.
The Member for Sahtu has spoken often about how a person is stronger when they know their culture, their history and their language. I think there's been a lot of research over the years that shows that's true. You have to be confident in yourself, know yourself and where you belong in the world in order to be successful.
There is a significant investment by the department in monies in the formula for schools to undertake the program of language acquisition, maintenance and revitalization, but to date we've left it to each of the regions to determine themselves how to spend that money, by and large. They've not had a lot of guidance. But as I've said in my opening comments, because there had been some concern about how it's being spent, we're working on a directive now in order to make sure there is an agreement that we're spending the money in ways that can satisfy the expectations of legislators who are providing the money to do that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.