Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to give a shout out to the 8,350 students in the Northwest Territories and the 49 schools across the North and the 800 educators in the 33 communities in the eight regions. That was from a newsletter that I received this morning. Thank you, Minister Lafferty, for sending that over to us.
I also want to say a special congratulations and support to the 62 teachers in the Sahtu region who are working with our students and making a difference in the lives of the students.
At the same time, I was reading a quote from an Ojibway elder, Mr. Jimmy Jackson. Mr. Jackson said, “We’ve got to learn what’s going on today in the world, and we’ve got to to get an education so that we can survive.” I thought about this quote this morning because I know that we need to get an education either on the land or in school so we don’t lose. That’s key. We need lawyers, doctors, teachers, carpenters and welders. We need skilled people to help other people, and we need to learn and be in a state of learning all the time.
We also need to remember our culture, learn our dances, learn the significance of our dances, learn to sing our own songs, learn our songs, learn our language. In the education system we need to maintain our culture, our identity for the future generation. That’s the most important education, is to tell the young people that you can be whatever you want to be, but you have to work hard for it, you have to survive. You know, you can do that whenever you want. That’s the golden opportunity in the Northwest Territories. Be of service to other people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.