Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It’s great to be back in the House after quite a long summer break.
Today I would like to talk about an area of concern that I have that developed over this fall with regard to support of the high school education in the Northwest Territories.
The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment acknowledges that this is the most fundamental role to enable the provision of kindergarten to Grade 12
education. The Minister has seen extension of high school to many communities and the subsequent increase in the number of graduates. Just last June the Minister was with me and we had the pleasure of attending graduation ceremonies for 20 students in my constituency. Some of these students are from smaller communities or home boarded or live at the regional residence in Fort Simpson. The Minister also acknowledges that it takes a community to educate a child, and a community can extend to a person’s region and First Nation.
I would like to bring attention to the occasional situation where our students live in another community and return home, but their parents continue to work down south. This is the case where a student is aboriginal, is from the NWT and her vision is to complete her education here. She has community and peer support and friends and extended family in her home community and at the regional centre. However, she is not able to get support from the Minister of Education to pay for home boarding.
Mr. Speaker, we have all heard about how not having to move to another school in another jurisdiction has knocked more than a few students off their track to high school graduation. There is a saying: the exception proves a rule. I think the Minister should examine the hard and fast application of policy in light of their departmental priorities.
The Minister must continue to support home boarding for a student who is completing high school in a familiar and supportive community, in spite of a relocation of family on the other side of the territorial border. I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.