Mr. Speaker, I want to assure you that I have been listening carefully to Members during the recent debate around Junior Kindergarten. I also want to assure you that the Government of the Northwest Territories remains committed to the principle that focused, targeted support during their first years of life will help our children reach their full potential and become healthy, educated, successful adults. Our government has introduced Junior Kindergarten, a program designed to achieve just this result, Mr. Speaker, and has already rolled it out successfully to 23 communities.

I believe that the people of the Northwest Territories agree with this government that our children deserve the best support possible to give them the right start in life. At the same time, I recognize that people have reservations about the way the program is being implemented. The Government of the Northwest Territories respects those concerns, and I want to reassure Members and the public today that we are listening carefully to what they are saying.

We planned for a phased rollout of Junior Kindergarten, Mr. Speaker, to ensure we would have the opportunity to review and adjust the program implementation, and that is what we will do. I want to be clear with Members that before our government goes ahead with years two and three of the Junior Kindergarten rollout, we will do a thorough review of our implementation plans.

That review will allow us to assess the success of the program in the 23 communities already delivering it and to address any issues identified

during the first months of program delivery. It will also allow us to hear again from parents, educators, communities and other stakeholders on their views and concerns. I commit to returning to the Assembly with the results of that review and any required changes to the implementation plans during the coming winter session.

Clearly, we need to do more for our children, Mr. Speaker, and Junior Kindergarten is the way to do it. But it is also clear from the current public debate that our government needs to do more in planning for the continued rollout of this program, particularly in the area of engaging parents, educators and the public.

We remain committed to Junior Kindergarten, Mr. Speaker. We still believe it is the right program for all those parents across the NWT who chose JK for their four-year-olds. We will look to move forward in a way that is sensitive to the concerns of parents, educators, daycare operators, Aboriginal Head Start programs and other stakeholders.

Implementing this program will require changes, we need to be clear about that, but the children of the NWT deserve the support and the advantages that Junior Kindergarten will give them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.