Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m happy with most of what was put into the budget. I’m very pleased to see the $600,000 into the small and rural and remote communities. I’m hoping that money for early childhood development programs goes into daycares in the small communities. I think that we have information from the schools indicating the value of daycare when the kids finally do get to school and kindergarten. A good daycare in the community seems to go a long ways to advancing the kids that do attend daycare and they come into the school system much better prepared. So, Mr. Chairman, I think that’s something that the department, if they don’t have this money specifically earmarked for specific programs at this

point, even part of the family literacy training can also be something that can be run along with daycare. So I think that’s something that’s important.

I think the most important thing in the school system right now, I guess because it becomes probably the most detrimental thing to success in school, is absenteeism. I think that putting that much money -- over $1.3 million -- into ensuring that the department is promoting attendance in all 49 schools across the Northwest Territories I think is something that’s very, very positive. I think that is something that comes right down to the community level. I think the communities that I represent are telling me that this could be an area where parent support workers could be put in place to help the parents and at some point the responsibility for absenteeism should be shared, not only the parent and the student, but also maybe even the schools and the boards and the department, that everybody should take responsibility for this. I realize that there are some schools that have very, very, very high attendance rates. I think the schools in Yellowknife easily carry better than 90 percent attendance rate. Unfortunately, in the small communities, that’s not the case. As I tried to indicate in a Member’s statement I made earlier in the week, the percentage of people below grade level is much, much, much higher the more school you miss. So there is definitely a direct correlation between having good marks and going to school. When you have a high absenteeism rate, then your marks are low and you are functioning at a low grade level when you are essentially going through school, advancing with the rest of the students but at the same time you are not really operating at that grade level. That is evident, as I indicated. That is something that is directly tied into absenteeism, so I feel that this is a tremendous initiative on the part of the department. I wish them all the luck in succeeding with trying to get the attendance levels up in the small communities.

I think that it is an excellent idea to put a three-part initiative into improve skills and living and working into Aurora College. It is $650,000 to support that. I think that is excellent. I think a lot of times it is difficult to get a job. Sometimes it is difficult to keep a job. I think if you improve your living and working skills and so on, and working with wellness and so on, I think that would be something that will go a long ways. I think we will recoup our investment in this by seeing more successful people across the Territories.

I am obviously pleased to see money budgeted for the community adult learning centre in Lutselk’e and the Hay River Reserve and Tsiigehtchic. I think that is something that is very positive. I am hoping that in Lutselk’e they are able to work with an instructor at the school and so on. Put that in kind of like a learning area in approximately the same

place where that school is now. I am very pleased to see that. I think that putting money in to provide opportunities for young people in small communities and to gain work experience towards long-term employment is something that, again, is excellent. It is a good response from the government. There is a fairly decent amount of money put into that to help.

I think that there is still some money in there for SFA. I think that there have been a few issues with the lack of funding for SFA. I think this addresses that issue. I think that all students, youth, that are out in school going on to post-secondary education should have as much support as this government can possibly give to them. I think that is an investment again in the future. I think that the more we invest in the youth, the more we invest in the students, the greater opportunities that the North is going to have and greater results we are going to have and more in our social spending, other areas such as income support, public housing and so on. I think that this budget here invests well in the youth.

Specifically some of the things that I think that are missing I think is that we need to have industrial arts. We need to have home economics back in the schools. I think that is important. I think all schools should have a library. I know that, of the two schools that I represent, one does not have a library. Although we were fortunate to have one of the schools from Yellowknife give us 25 boxes of library books, it was something that I think is needed. I think that the department has to look at ensuring that there are library services in all of the communities and a good start is going through the schools.

I think that, although this is not for this budget, Mr. Chairman, I think that the department has to look at capital for daycare. I think that it is something that was mentioned during the time we were doing the infrastructure acquisition plan, but now it is specifically down to the department. I think what is missing here is not supposed to be here, but what is missing, I guess overall, is there be spending in daycare but sometimes the daycares are not in the best location or they are not the best daycare as far as the building itself goes. I am looking forward to continuing to work with the department to improve the daycare building in Fort Resolution and perhaps finding a better location or maybe build a daycare onto the school in Lutselk’e. I think that is something that is another matter, but I think the department is putting some money into the early childhood development. It is the first thing I mentioned that is very positive for daycares. I am hoping that we are able to do more. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.