Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise in support of the motion. I thank the mover and the seconder for coming up with this motion. This motion is basically about money and they ask that the government identify and seek new funding for this major initiative. At the same time, it has to be professionally designed and based on early childhood development, not so much hinging on kindergarten. It should start with communities that don’t have Aboriginal Head Start that are in existence already.

The other part of this whole motion, too, goes back to the very fundamental concerns that I have raised in this House before, and that’s the distinction between communities and larger centres. I think it’s an acknowledged fact that in our small communities, our students struggle, whether it’s graduation rates or moving on to post-secondary educational studies. In some respects, for a student to reach that level, they often have challenges. It goes back to just how it is that they’ve managed to challenge themselves. They are trying at least to get baseline education fundamentals engendered in them so they can succeed at a later stage.

So the bigger issue to this is: Is the Education Renewal Initiative trying to address that? There’s going to be a level of public consultation. We all understand the education system that we have has to adapt to the globalization of the economy and the labour pool that each country has, including Canada. At the same time, what needs to be reiterated is that the JK initiative, it’s currently

contemplated that, as it is, it could jeopardize the Aboriginal Head Start initiatives that have been successfully managed in the communities for the past 17 years.

What needs to be said is JK is indeed part of the Education Renewal Initiative. It’s a major initiative, so if it is a major initiative, something of the magnitude of a paradigm shift, there has to be money associated with this initiative. Mahsi.