Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise today to celebrate International Women's Day, which is this Sunday.
Mr. Speaker, two years ago, Members of the 18th Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to make their best efforts to increase the representation of women in this House. We set modest goals of increasing representation first to 20 percent and then to 30 percent by the 2027 election. It's fair to say that none of us expected that we would get almost 50 percent in one election cycle, but we did. In this House today, we have a highly qualified, hard-working, collaborative, and diverse group of women serving their communities and the people of the Northwest Territories.
Women have had equal rights for decades, but parity in political and public life has been a hard goal to achieve all around the world. Research has shown that, when representation of minority members reaches 30 percent, the group is able to influence decision-making.
Mr. Speaker, it's early days in this Assembly and difficult to say how the nine of us are going to influence policy and legislation in our term, but our mandate reveals that we are poised to make a difference. Having a critical mass of women in this House has helped shape our priorities, priorities that clearly differ from the last Assembly. For example, some priorities refer directly to relationships that will empower other orders of government, such as the implementation of UNDRIP and focusing on closing the municipal funding gap. Some priorities come directly from the experience of women as the primary caregivers in their families and communities, such as retaining healthcare professionals, catching up student achievement rates to the rest of Canada, and advancing universal childcare and affordable housing. That is not to say our male colleagues do not support these priorities, but the focus is more inclusive of women's ways of working, needs, and views.
Mr. Speaker, I am often asked how we are going to retain the high level of women's representation. My answer is that women here are going to prove they are capable and effective leaders. We are going to get the work done. Women of all ages and stages are going to be inspired by our example and see their potential.
This parity of women's representation is not an aberration. We are going to make it the norm. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.