Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am pleased to announce that the GNWT and the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association have negotiated and ratified a new three-year collective agreement.

This new agreement will improve the competitiveness of the GNWT in recruiting and retaining teachers and administrators, while also focusing attention on key issues such as aboriginal languages.

The new agreement will result in a restructuring of the teachers' pay grid over three years to provide more consistency. The minimum pay increase will be three percent. Additionally, employees with more experience and more years of GNWT service will receive higher increases. This will assist the GNWT to be more competitive with other jurisdictions.

A redesigned northern allowance structure will be implemented with the new agreement in September 2006. This structure was developed prior to negotiations by a committee comprised of representatives of both the GNWT and the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association.

In the new agreement, there is funding for professional improvement of language proficiency in one or more of the

official aboriginal languages of the Northwest Territories. There will be $50,000 allocated per academic year commencing September 1, 2005, and again in 2006; $100,000 will be allocated in the academic year commencing September 1, 2007.

Education is a fundamental concern for our communities and it is a priority to ensure that we are able to recruit and retain teachers and also compensate them fairly. I applaud the work done by the bargaining teams in negotiating this agreement, and I look forward to seeing the results of the ongoing work they have identified. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause