Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I just want to rise in support of the motion for the fact of all the arguments you have heard already here. I will just make mine brief. With these cuts in the literacy section of the federal cuts, Mr. Speaker, where the rates of illiteracy right across Canada are highest amongst the aboriginal population, I don't know if the federal government really realizes this, but that's the sector of the human resource population in Canada that has the most potential to assist this government or the federal government in dealing with the big labour market shortages that we are experiencing right now today. The potential to turn that whole human resource sector around has also been taken a step backwards just with some literacy cuts in that area.
Human development and well-being is not only measured in gross domestic product, which is just rising every day here in the NWT. We can still go out to the communities and see high unemployment rates, high suicide rates, high crime rates, sexual abuse rates and family abuse rates. You can't just measure it by gross domestic product only. The human development indicator is one of the best indicators used at the international level is literacy. That's one of the most important indicators of human well-being in any country. That's a basic measurement of how well a country is dealing with either an economic resource boom or a resource bust. Literacy is one of the prime indicators in that measurement.
With the cuts in the literacy funding at the national level, again we are taking a step backward. Why do we have to rely on BHP to provide literacy funding and education to the people who it wants to retain, that being the aboriginal population which has much pride and admiration for themselves and they are kind of reluctant to say they don't know how to read and write. That's why the onus is on our government to provide some kind of an interim funding to cover off the shortfalls that all these NGOs are going to experience because of the federal government cuts in the area of literacy, volunteerism and smoking cessation, because of the fact that we will definitely benefit from it. We have a lot to lose and everything to gain if we just cover off on the interim measures, these funding cuts, whether it be from other programs that aren't high priority. I think it has the utmost priority of this government to keep the ball rolling in literacy, development and human well-being in the NWT, that being literacy funding, funding of volunteerism and such.
If we don't do that and don't come up with some interim options of how we are going to address this issue, we are going five years back in less than a year and everything is going to go down the tube along with the federal government cuts, and we're going to be starting from scratch again. I just don't want to see the snowball stop rolling. I think it's building all the time and we have to keep building on it. With just providing some interim measures, interim funding arrangements, we can keep that ball going just as long as it takes to get some federal government attention back to this issue of literacy funding and volunteerism across Canada. I think that's of utmost importance just with this government here today. You know, we can deal with the federal government when the time comes, but just as an interim option I think it's very important that we keep that momentum going with industry, government and NGOs and provide them with the funding that they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause