Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of things I want to touch on in my general comments. I want to talk about the policy of inclusive schooling that we have here in the Northwest Territories.

I think there are some really good things to be said for inclusive schooling, but not when it’s not adequately resourced. If it is not adequately resourced to allow for classroom assistants and

special-needs assistants, then it puts a tremendous stress on the teacher. You’re going to be, in any case, dealing with students at many different levels of, I guess, development. I want to say “capacity,” but I don’t know if that’s the right word. Any teacher is going to be dealing with a range, a spectrum of kids, you know, everything from gifted children to children who are maybe slightly more challenged developmentally.

To put teachers in fairly large classroom settings without the resources needed in the classroom I think is doing a disservice to the teachers. It’s doing a disservice to the children, the students, and I have concerns about it. This is something I hear quite a bit about from teachers in Hay River, so I am very concerned about it. You can do a certain amount with volunteers in a school, but it is not the solution on a consistent or sustainable basis.

Being from Hay River, where we have a lot of students who do go into areas of trades — and there’s a lot of employment in our community related to the trades.... For anybody who has toured our school, we do have a very good opportunity for high school students in Hay River to become involved, to some degree, in preparation for occupations in the trades. I think we do need more of that. We need more support for what we have in Hay River.

What we have done is pretty much attributable to two particular individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in terms of improvising and using innovative ways to try and create as much opportunity and experience for the students as possible at the high school level. I think we need to become more involved in that opportunity. I think the academic stream is good for some children. I think that other students would be greatly served by knowing and participating in things other than perhaps post-secondary, college or university programs.

The nice thing is that there is a tremendous demand for trades in the Northwest Territories, and right now trades are a very profitable occupation to be in, in the sense that they are very well paid as, say, compared to years ago. The demand for trades is going up, and the amount of money that a qualified tradesman can command in a job is quite amazing. So I would like to see more focus on that.

I think we need versatility in our apprenticeship programs. I know there are students who have embarked on apprenticeship training and then for various reasons wanted to take their theory training in places other than where it was offered in the Northwest Territories. That has been strongly disallowed by the folks at the apprenticeship office, and I think that is too bad. I think that could be a detriment to people realizing their potential in this

area. If it does not cost the government any more money, if it is absolutely cost neutral to the government, I think that students in the trades should be allowed to access that training at NAIT or SAIT or other places. A lot of people in the Northwest Territories do come from other parts of Canada. They have family; they have friends; they have people they can stay with. I think that by prohibiting it, it’s just creating a barrier that could, if it was dealt with, allow a few more people. I think we need to do everything we can to encourage them.

Some of the other issues that Members raised they’ve already covered off, so I won’t repeat them.

I have to say this because a few years ago I made a statement in this House about the amount of homework that children have, and everybody thought what I said was absolutely outlandish. I’ve noticed that some other jurisdictions in Canada have now actually moved to pretty much abolish homework. The position that I had on it at the time was that we send our children to school to learn, and we try to turn parents into teachers. When parents don’t cooperate with the program and become teachers and supervise homework and provide that structure and discipline for their kids at home at night, those students tend to suffer in the school system. No homework: bad student. Issues at home that would distract parents from being able to take that sit-down time with their kids to supervise homework equal the students not learning the same.

I think that if kids go to school from 9 in the morning until 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon, we should be able to take that time — it’s like going to a job or anything else — and make the most of it. I don’t think we should be trying to turn parents into teachers. It’s nice of them to be involved if they can be, but the students shouldn’t suffer if they aren’t. That is just something I’ve thought for many years, having had three children almost go through the school system. I’ve got one that’s got a couple courses yet to go. I think it’s discriminatory too. It sets the child who does not have that level of commitment from the parents to be involved in that after-school and evening support at a disadvantage.

As I said in my statement I made a few years ago in the House, I think life is too short. I think it’s too stressful on kids to have to go home and do hours of homework. You know, maybe there should be more time for some fun. I think that when they’re at school, they should be very focused on their academic training, and their academic training should be very focused on the basics.

I wasn’t a great student. I missed a lot of school because my parents had a business. It’s like kids who go on the land with their parents here in the

North. My parents had a family business, so I went to work in the store. In the agricultural community around where I grew up, if it was harvest time, the kids missed school. But somehow, in spite of all of that, we came away with basic, good education in math and English and grammar, enough to stand us in good stead to participate in life’s experiences. I didn’t have post-secondary education, but it was a solid enough foundation that I could embark on things without too many obstacles, just with that basic foundation.

I would like to see a real focus on the meat-and-potatoes kind of education for the kids during the day. Don’t load them up with homework so that you make them hate school. I just think it’s too much stress on our kids today. You know, if you’re lucky and your parents are already teachers or something, you might just turn out to be a genius by school standards, but for the average family that is dealing with all of the challenges of parenting and working and extracurricular activities that they may want their children to be involved in, I just think a whole lot of homework is not a good idea. I know it’s maybe a strange position to take to those who are in the education field, but it’s a life issue.

I think my point has been proven by the fact that there are jurisdictions — I just heard it in the news the other day — that have actually taken a position to limit homework for children in their education system. So you might want to think about it and check it out in other jurisdictions to see what’s happening. I just hate to see children feel like they are somehow less prepared or that they’re a failure in school because maybe they didn’t have the home situation that had the structure that could get them doing a lot of homework in the evenings.