Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the hard work that's gone into developing this motion and I certainly appreciate that our colleagues across the way are in support of it as amended as am I.

I've heard from many residents in Kam Lake, as my colleague has said in his own circumstance, expressing similar concerns. My own son has been in two day homes since I was a single parent many years ago, and the care provided to him was topnotch, so I certainly understand the value of these programs and the value of early education, but we have to make sure it's done right.

The department commissioned a very lengthy, thorough report that spoke to many stakeholders, and my concerns with this recent announcement of the roll out of junior kindergarten that that report was not being considered in full, and that causes me concerns when we did all this work and we're moving ahead without considering implications that that report made full. So I'm very pleased to see that this motion seeks to correct that and provide guidance to our government moving forward.

Even as recently as today, Mr. Speaker, a school in my own riding, Ecole St. Joseph's School, is concerned about the expansion of junior kindergarten and the consequences it will have on their capital costs and ability to provide space for the program, and they're looking for resources from the YK1 education district. I'm deeply concerned that if school boards are competing with each other and looking to take resources away from each other to facilitate this then we really need to think about how this plan is rolling out and if it's properly resourced and adequately resourced to make sure that we can give kids the quality early education that they deserve for healthy productive lives. Many of us have had the opportunity of means to provide that for our kids and we need to think about everyone else who can't.

So I do support this program. I think everyone in the Northwest Territories supports this program, but again, we need to make sure it's done right and we can't jeopardize existing programs and we need to make sure that our schools have the resources they need to make space and provide this service to Northerners. So with that I stand in support of this motion and I'm happy to see that this House is fully in support. Thank you.