Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say a few things on the motion. I would like to thank Mr. Bromley for bringing forward this motion. Anything that we have to have some discussions with students and education, it’s always an important issue in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of years, we’ve had to buckle down in terms of having debates on some very tough issues on very important programs that are out there. Because of the financial situation we are in, there are programs that need to be looked at and we have to make some decisions as to the priorities.
From the Sahtu region, we are fighting and we are wanting to…(inaudible)…educational programs in our smaller schools and smaller educational systems. We are still of the opinion that the level of quality of education is not quite fair right across the board. I talked to the educational superintendent from the Sahtu region. He certainly would love more high school students in our region, more programs in our regions and we seem to be reminded by the department that there is a limited amount of funding and certainly with the release of the language report, you know how strong that report is in terms of some major shifts and
discussion to preserve the aboriginal languages in the Northwest Territories.
I am not convinced that the elimination of this program here, it needs to be put back. I think we need to look at the small communities, so I will also not be supporting this motion. I think more emphasis needs to be on discussions on our schools in our smaller communities where education has really been needed to support the community level at all costs and maintain those types of services or even enhance it to a level that we will feel comfortable that we are on the same level playing field with other regions and centres. Some of our communities would like to have chemistry classes or biology classes or extra teachers in the schools to help with the teaching of the programs that they are doing right now.
I do want to thank Mr. Bromley for bringing this motion forward. However, I will not be supporting it at this time.