Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This week is Education Week and the theme is Changing the Way We Learn. I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize educators throughout the Northwest Territories for their hard work, dedication, support and commitment to our youth, but also to those who are seeking further education in post-secondary or upgrading programs.

With the constant goal to make sure our students are successful beyond the classroom, I want to make sure that our educators are, as well, and offer any type of support that I can. But I want to make a special thank you to those educators who take it one step further and go outside of the classroom, attend community events, volunteer in the community and coach our youth in sports, which also provides a lot of great life lessons.

I’d like to also send some special thank yous today. Thank you to the NWT Teachers’ Association for representing our educators throughout the Northwest Territories. I’d like to give a special thank you to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for their continued support and their initiatives in this Legislative Assembly that are starting to make a difference in early childhood development, as well as revamping the education system with the Education Renewal Initiative.

I’d also like to thank the Members of this Legislative Assembly who are taking this education, running with it, putting the effort in to changing it and making it better for our students, our educators and residents of the Northwest Territories.

As I stated earlier, a lot of our educators go above and beyond, taking the education outside the classrooms and supporting our youth and our residents of the Northwest Territories. In fact, this weekend I know a lot of educators are coaching our youth in sports here in Yellowknife in the senior boys Cager Basketball Tournament. With that, I just want to say, go East 3 Secondary School Eagles! Go get ‘em, have a good time and I wish you just as much success as the elementary boys last week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.