I would also like to table a document on Council History on Working on Issues Related to Childcare Recommendations and Comments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a tabled document from the chairperson from the Sahtu Divisional Education Council on the issue of the Colville Lake School.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a document from the letter from the Arctic Co-operatives Limited with respect to the Beverage Container Recovery Program which takes effect November 1, 2005. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Item 13, tabling of documents. I am pleased to table the report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the 2005 North Slave by-election provided to my office pursuant to subject 162(b) of the Elections Act.

Item 13, tabling of documents. Item 14, notices of motion. Item 15, notices of motion for first reading of bills. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 24, 2005, I will move that Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Financial Administration Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 15, notices of motion for first reading of bills. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 24, 2005, I will move that Bill 14, Public Airports Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 14, notices of motion for first reading of bills. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 24, 2005, I will move that Bill 16, Tobacco Control Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 14, notices of motion for first reading of bills. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 24, 2005, I will move that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Public Colleges Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I also give notice that on Monday, October 24, 2005, I will move that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Territorial Court Act, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 24, 2005, I will move that Bill 15, Court Security Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 15, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 16, motions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to speak to the motion very briefly, Mr. Speaker, in my research, there were 23 various residential schools and institutions in the Northwest Territories. According to the research I have done, there were over 131 years of the residential school history in the Northwest Territories. According to the Roman Catholic records, there were over 10,000 students in the Northwest Territories that attended these residential school systems, the most being in Inuvik where 2,500 students attended the Grollier school system.

Mr. Speaker, families are now being affected by it, and families are taking initiative, and communities are taking initiative, to start a healing process. Community workshops are slowly springing up in the communities in terms of dealing with the impacts the residential schools

have had on our people. Ministers and MLAs and leaders are taking note of the impacts, and are dealing with them in their own ways through their own departments.

Mr. Speaker, children now are starting to really understand the impacts of residential schools, and sometimes they're asking questions that sometimes as adults we have a hard time explaining to them.

I would like to thank the Members for allowing me to speak on this sensitive and delicate issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise to speak on the motion. I, too, am a survivor of the residential school system, and it's something like this that will bring recognition in our North to this very, very sensitive issue that still hasn't been resolved. I just might add that, Mr. Speaker, it still hasn't been resolved, and there are still lots of issues to be uncovered here, and dealt with throughout the North. I believe that a day of recognition, on an annual basis, will be something that, throughout the North, we can look to this day.

What I've been finding, Mr. Speaker, is that in our communities we have children who are behaving as if they actually went to residential school, when, in fact, they didn't. So it's a systemic thing. A lot of behaviour is because the parents went to residential school, and it's a huge thing, and we're still dealing with it. We're still learning how to combat it, and, indeed, how to restore a lot of the values that were taken from aboriginal people who did go to residential schools. I believe that this recognition of May 26th is a good thing for all of us, as northerners, to recognize that, indeed, it is part of our history and it is not to be forgotten. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to speak in support of this initiative, to dedicate a day that we recognize and honour the people who went through the residential school system.

Mr. Speaker, I am from the community of Fort Providence, that had a mission from the late 1800s to, I think, into the 1970s. The Sacred Heart Mission was located in Fort Providence. Many, many students from across the NWT, across the Mackenzie Valley, attended this school. Many, many students came as orphans; some came at a very young age. Recently, I was quite pleased to see the hamlet of Fort Providence erect some headstones, or a dedication to the number of children who passed away while they were in the residential school.

I've grown up in the community, where I've heard, practically on a daily basis, the stories and discussion about the mission experience. As Mr. Menicoche has indicated, there was a lot of anger. A lot of these youth, now that the facility has been torn down, have not seen this building. It was demolished before they were born, yet there are lingering effects.

I was quite happy to see, and quite proud, that the Fort Providence people who went to the residential school in the community from across the region, from Fort Simpson, from Liard and other places, even including the South, have come together. They've formed the Fort Providence Residential School Society, and they're taking the approach where they're not looking to be compensated, they're not looking to be pointing fingers or blame, but they're looking at ways that they can heal themselves so that they can become part of society. They hold workshops; they hold on-the-land gatherings; they hold dances; they do a lot of things to try to deal with the many, many issues that involve the residential school.

Other people are quite happy with the experience that they had at residential schools. But for the most part, Mr. Speaker, I want to support this motion because it recognizes that there was an experience, good or bad, that happened in our history, and it also gives a chance to recognize that there was this that was in our history, and to take part in the discussions and reflect and acknowledge that it happened. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. To the motion. The Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.