Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just like to thank my Honourable friend, the member for Nahendeh, for laying out some of these considerations. I, too, have consulted with some people on this issue. The crux of it is, the NWT students graduate with an NWT senior secondary diploma, and not an Alberta education diploma; and although there are some course equivalencies through the NWT senior secondary diploma such as the Alberta 30-1 or 30-2 language arts course, ultimately, the NWT's diploma is standalone. Universities do not require 1,000 hours when they are considering the NWT's senior secondary diploma. Whether an NWT student has 1,000 hours of instruction per year for grades 10 to 12 has nothing to do with whether or not they will be accepted to post-secondary institutions.
I appreciate where the mover is coming from, and she clearly laid out her case for why compromise is preferable to something imperfect, however, in this case, I think the diploma speaks for itself, and how those diplomas are considered by post-secondary institutions, and as a result, I will not be supporting this amendment. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.