Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to speak to this motion, but, unfortunately,

I can’t support the motion the way it is written. I’ll explain why.

I certainly believe strongly that the path of independence is sought through education. I think independent people who are self-sufficient through their education and that gives them the strength to go on and take care of themselves and their family and their future. I feel very strongly that the benefits of education help people in every generation. Education does not hold a single person back once you get that.

As the program is designed now, post-secondary education funding is for post-secondary education. It’s not to replace high school. People who decide not to complete high school, people who do not decide to complete high school in the right way -- and that means the upper level courses to qualify for university. This motion says that we should be funding high school, in essence, in another location through the post-secondary process. I disagree with that.

I would ask the mover if he has done any work in the Social Programs committee. He has told me no. If he wants to change his answer today, I’m curious if his answer is new today. I recently asked him this question not two days ago. I’d like to know what the demand is of this particular case that people, whether they’re aged 25, 30, 35, 40, have decided that they want to go to university at this stage and that they need high school upgrading.

There are options out there. I’ll tell you the options and I’ll start with the free ones. If somebody wants to go back and do upgrading, they can go to the high school; the local high school that this government and past governments have worked very hard to ensure are in every community. I believe they exist. Why aren’t we taking up that option first? Someone may say that they may be too old. Okay. I’ll buy that. If they’re aged 21 or older perhaps and they feel uncomfortable going back to Grade 12 in their home town. I’ll respect that. There’s an age factor there. What about using one of our 33 learning centres in the Northwest Territories? What about accessing one of our three campuses in our major communities? You can go back there to take high school upgrading so you can pursue those post-secondary education dreams, which I support. Right now with the existing pillars we have right here is a fantastic Aurora College that provides us access to anybody who wants to proceed.

Now, is the cost burden too heavy to go to Aurora College? Well, I’m glad I put that question out there, because I went to the Aurora College program and I noticed the heavy burden of the cost to pursue Aurora College programming is $40 for an application fee -- that seems overwhelming -- $25 for student fees, $40 for computer lab, and the $20 fee for recreation; $125 is not considered a

burdensome levy that somebody now has to create a new program through Student Financial Assistance that we have to create to provide high school.

I feel very strongly about our Aurora College. I feel, clearly and unequivocally, that they are going in the right direction providing opportunities for our northern students. Certainly the ones that come along a little later can be defined as mature students. They are the pillars of our education and they are an access point.

There are a couple of other options. If a person happens to be down on their luck and working through the income support system, income support will support them as a productive choice going back to the learning centre and accessing it that way. Amazingly, that’s not all.

A person can access the distance education system while they’re at home here in the Northwest Territories. Yet again more options for these people. And they’re not very expensive, because I’ve pursued to find out the cost of some of these things.

Lastly, but not least, is if a person is of the age that they feel a little uncomfortable again approaching the schools... And by the way, the schools do welcome students who want to return to high school to do upgrading. As a matter of fact, I’ve helped constituents in my riding in this school year to consider those options and look at those options. But you know, someone of an older age may feel uncomfortable pursuing that option, which I respect. They could apply as a mature student at a college. That opportunity exists for them.

I don’t think this motion has been well thought out. I’m not convinced in any manner that the work has been done to consider options that exist on the table. I think if we pursue this option, what this is, is creating an incentive to either drop out of school early and know that the system will pick you up through distance education later or not provide motivation to focus in on the right courses.

I feel very strongly about the existing process we have. I feel strongly that our school systems are good. They provide good education and good guidance to students. I believe Aurora College is a strength that we should be continuing to embrace. Certainly in every single community we have here there’s an access point.

The motion, again, speaks to education. I support the concept but I don’t think it’s well thought out. I’m very disappointed that we’re not treating our Aurora College...

Mr. Jacobson has a note for me here. Perhaps I’ll table it. Thank you, Mr. Jacobson.