Mahsi, Madam Chair. Madam Chair...(English not provided)
Madam Chair, I have specifically three areas I want to focus on: grants and contributions, fees and payments. First I'd like to highlight the school fees charged to aboriginal students. Those fees are for after school curricular programs or during the school sports program. Some aboriginal students' parents are not working, as we all know. Most of them are really struggling to keep their kids in school and keep them out of trouble. In order to do that, they need to have them in sports, but they cannot have them in sports due to all these fees that are attached to extra-curricular activities. As you know, some of them are options for students to pursue, whether it be weight lifting, whether it be extra-curricular activities in schools. There are all kinds of sports happening, and there's clothing attached to it, too. But at the same time, we encourage our students to stay out of trouble, to stay in school, to get involved. As the Minister indicated earlier, students need to be active in schools, and we must follow through with that. I'd like to find out why this is continuing in our schools, where our aboriginal students are paying for extra-curricular activities. That's part of the school program. School sports are part of the school program. Sure, they are taught all day and at the same time they are being active in school, as well. They are representing the school when they travel as well. But we are also leaving out the poor students whose parents are not working. They're not treated the same. For individuals that may be wealthy, they're travelling, their kids are in sports, they wear top notch clothing. But at the same time, we're leaving out the lower-classed ones. Sure, they're at the same level, they're taught the same, but at the same time they cannot afford to get into a program.
I, myself, disagree with that process. I've witnessed it. My kids are Tlicho members, as well, and I had to pay the fees. I'm not talking about me, but I'm talking about future kids of those people that are living in Yellowknife or surrounding areas that are required to pay these additional fees. I certainly hope the Minister will take that into consideration and waive that fee for the goodness of all the students that are growing up.
Madam Chair, if I can continue, just wrapping up with my next item: the cultural perspective. Here in the North we're unique, quite unique compared to other provinces, other jurisdictions. The TCSA culture program, the budget is adequate in order to fund culture programming. There are subsidizations from local community governments, and all sorts of other fundings that are applied for. Many, many proposals have been submitted and drafted up. It's very time consuming and teachers certainly don't have time to write those proposals, or administrators, let alone the principals. ECE funds some of these cultural programs in school, but it's certainly not enough. We talk about education program at the community where there's a general pot for culture program, where they always tell us, well, you can take it out of your pot to hire a traditional elder, or on-the-land program.
Skidoos; without skidoos, without traps, without tents, you cannot survive on the land nowadays, and those are key to promoting on-the-land culture programs in schools. If I understand it correctly, the Department of ECE does not fund schools to purchase school equipment and supplies such as snowmobiles, four-wheelers, traps, tents, as I indicated earlier. But without this equipment, one cannot go out on the land and survive.
Most importantly, Madam Chair, the wages of the elders, they must be comparable to the teachers. They are the traditional teachers in our small, remote communities and we must recognize them as teachers as well. Sure, we can say, well, degrees. They do have degrees in the bush. But when we say we need more money, the department will come back and say, well, you've got a general pot, $137,000, take it out of there. You know, we can't even buy 15 snow machines or equipment to cover that. So there are a lot of issues around that area. We, as GNWT, have always stressed that we support on-the-land culture programs, and we certainly do, but we must put more money, we must invest in a culture program; vis-...-vis that we, as a Tlicho Nation, send our delegation of new staff and students out on bear land. That cost alone is well beyond the $137,000 we get a year. That should clearly show that we are a model for the North, as well, and we will continue to do that with or without ECE's assistance, because we are the new government now. But we must work with the GNWT to promote even more of that.
In our nations, we are losing our languages and we must promote our language, too. The department must realize that.
I would just like to highlight, Madam Chair, that the culture program, especially with the teachers, has been very successful with our Chief Jimmy Bruneau School back in the '70s and '80s where we hired an elderly lady and a well-respected man that taught and made snowshoes and so forth; you know, traditional garments. But that's gone because we have to take it out of the general pot.
My time is up, Mr. Chair. If I can allow the Minister to follow through with that. Mahsi.