Thank you. I was just up in Inuvik at East Three, and I visited one of the classes that this is offered from. The experience and the knowledge that that staff has now from running this program for a number of years is invaluable, and I just had that discussion with my department the other day.

The whole point of this is to offer courses that would maybe not otherwise be offered, where there might not be enough students to take a course. In Yellowknife, that's not really an issue. If you have a Chemistry 30-1 course, it's going to be full. The economy of scale is there. I think that, when we expand, it would be taught out of places like Hay River. It would be taught out of Inuvik. It would be taught out of places like Hay River.

We have to remember we are limited by the staff, the teachers that they have in Inuvik. If there is not, say, an art teacher for a year, then we cannot offer that through northern distance learning. The more participants we have, I think, the better and then the wider our offerings can be and we can perhaps accommodate, too, different scheduling. Different regions have different schedules. I do not see foresee this being taught out of Yellowknife. That is not the market. It's not free to set this up, either. There are infrastructure costs in every community that offers northern distance learning, and there would be no point to set it up in a school in Yellowknife, where it wasn't even needed. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe I was not as clear. I was not saying that they would have a class here. I think it was keeping the teachers and the infrastructure to teach the small communities in Inuvik, and so I am happy. It kind of goes to our other, though I do not know if we have gotten there, the regional, making sure that stuff stays in the region and is not in Yellowknife, so I am glad of that.

The other one is, the same with my colleague, again, as a past regional chair of the High Arctic, every single board meeting that I sat at, it came up, "social passing." The inclusive schooling specialist hated it, and she would try to tell us the definition and ensure that we call it "inclusive schooling," but everybody outside who is not in that profession, it's "social passing," and any of us who have grown up in the North know that it has not always been like that, and so we don't understand it. The smaller communities even have a harder time understanding it. So I think, as we move kids along, and this is where I found that in the communities that were smaller, like in my region, the Tsiigehtchic, Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk, the smaller communities, they could not understand why we could not put high school teachers teaching high school courses, but they did not realize that, their kids, they were 16, 17, but they were not working at that level.

So I think we have a lot of work to do, and we try to do it as DEAs, but even with the DEAs, sometimes they had a hard time understanding. It's more of a comment. Under this, as part of your moving forward, it's going to be really important with the small communities outside: how do we communicate this, and how do we have the teachers understand that they don't understand it, so, when they are working and they are moving kids along, they really need to have that dialogue, that "passing" and "placing" doesn't make sense to them. It's almost like you need to say: they did not pass because they did not meet, they are not at this grade level, so it's up to you. We will have the discussion. We can move them with their peers, or they could stay a year in this grade. You know, it's almost that basic, that I think we have to make sure that they understand because we use all these terms. I know, as a health provider, I use all these acronyms all the time. Even my notes to my husband and my kids, they finally got used to shorthand because that is all I am used to, so I think that is what I think we have to make sure we do when we are teaching that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely, communication is something we need to work on with this, and we need to work with our partners, the DEAs, on doing this. I want to be clear, though. I will not support this government just saying there will be no more social passing, period. There are children out there, and my niece is one of them who has disabilities to the point that she will never be sitting behind these chairs. She will have obstacles for the rest of her life. She is so proud she got a completion certificate, so she is holding that up. She cannot get a job, but she has that. So there are children, is what I am saying, Madam Chair, who, if you hold them back, will stay in grade kindergarten, JK, for the rest of their lives. Is that fair to our students? So there has to be an informed decision by parents. We need to do better communicating, but we also have to make sure that we are not losing the most marginalized of our children in this new way of doing business. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Next on my list, I have the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When we did our briefings and just after we got sworn in, the stats kept playing in my head over and over, and it's almost like a nightmare now, but it's the rates for our high school graduation for Indigenous populations in small communities. The 2018 graduation rates are 33 percent in the small communities, and, well, that made me sad. You look right below that stat I have in front of me right now is there was really steady attendance rates right from kindergarten to grade nine. All of a sudden, for the key grades where your grades are on a transcript, it just significantly drops. I have in front of me from 82 percent attendance rates, all of a sudden, it goes down to like 70 percent. That is pretty significant.

I am just wondering, that is a big disconnect, you know. Especially, I know in my riding, attendance is not great, and we are only have one or two people, sometimes no kids, graduating in a given school year, and a big part of that in my interviews of the teachers and them telling me is kids are not coming to school. We are trying to, some schools are trying to, be creative and innovative to try to get the kids to school. Like, you know, if you hit a certain attendance benchmark, you get a little prize or whatever. We have got to be innovative. I am just wondering if there are any sort of suggestions you have, Madam Premier, in trying to help out, get kids into the school, get the attendance rates up or maybe even the Minister could have some sort of programs or anything, sort of like incentives that they are working on right now. Mahsi cho, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. I do not think that that's really addressed in this area, but I will invite the Premier to respond to your question. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the last Assembly, when I was the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the attendance was a huge issue for me, and the graduation rates, so I began conversations with all of the education bodies to actually look at addressing that. It's a scary topic for any education body because everybody is wondering: what do I do; is that my job, to actually get them there? It might be your job to actually get them there. I am not sure. So that is why, when we are talking about daycares and accessibility, that is why I have been, not just from this time, from the last government, I have been probably one of the strongest advocates to say we need hubs in our schools. We need to start bringing the parents there for daycare programs, for parenting programs, for cultural feasts, for sports events. The more that we can get parents engaged, and I don't know if that is the answer, but I am willing to try it, and I think we need to try whatever is possible. However, I also think that we need to be open, and again that goes back to my telling the Ministers: you need to engage with stakeholders; you need to work with your partners. Because that is only my idea. There are ideas out there, and I think that all of us have to be open to whatever ideas we can get to help our children succeed. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think there is, and I don't remember which one now, but there is a priority in here, or a mandate, addressing the bandwidth within communities. It is specific. It's not for communities like Yellowknife where we have lots, although it'd be nice to have it quicker, I guess. I don't even watch TV. It's definitely for the smaller communities. Again, it has to be a partnership with the private market and also the federal government. We can't do this on our own. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Anything further, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh? Are there any further comments on "Increasing student education outcomes to the same level as the rest of Canada?" Seeing none, we will go to "Enable seniors to age in place with dignity." Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Looking at the increased supports for seniors to stay in their homes, I know that they're mentioning more of a financial in the mandate, but I didn't really see more of a support like homecare or home support. Is that going to happen in this government so that we have after hours and weekend home support for those who do need it? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Remembering this mandate, those who were in the 18^th Legislative Assembly remember what the mandate looked like, and it became a huge document with a whole bunch of checklists, and I don't even think any of us really got back to it, it was so cumbersome. We've tried to keep this mandate more condensed, so it doesn't have every single thing that we're doing in it, or else it would become a checklist, and we wouldn't be creative any longer. I think we got federal government funding for homecare, so homecare will continue. Based on that, I don't know. The Minister of Health and Social Services, do you want to expand on that, or are you okay with that?

Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are some things the department is doing now. We have heard from many of our stakeholders about how our elders don't go to sleep at 5:00. There needs to be that aftercare, and that is something that our department is looking into because we feel the need of having, and right now, we're in the process of what does that look like. That is something our department is looking into. It will include many things like looking at the collective agreement on some of the staff who don't just work 8:30 to 5:00. What would it look like? It is something we've heard, and it is something that we definitely need to look into, because I agree, elders don't go to sleep at 5:00. Bingo's at 7:00 and finishes at 9:00. They need help getting tucked in, and all that stuff.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Although it doesn't say it in here and I know we get federal dollars, homecare dollars to enhance homecare, and I thank the Minister for her department that they're looking into this because I really feel, like Jackie said it before, we need to keep our elders, especially in our small communities. I see them coming to my community, and they go right into the long-term care. They don't need to. I think there's a study that shows that, to be in long-term care, you don't need to be there, it should be like the last year to year-and-a-half of your life. Some of our elders are in there 10 years. That's their residence because they need some after-hours care, and they just can't get it in the smaller communities. I look forward to that in this government, to seeing how that evolves. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will take that as a comment. I didn't hear a question in it, but thank you for your confidence and affirming, as many of us believe, that we need to try to keep our elders in the home, and homecare is a part of that solution. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Are there other comments on "Enabling seniors to age in place with dignity?" Mr. Simpson from Hay River South.