Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT's decision to close schools for the remainder of the school year during the COVID-19 pandemic, I am in full support of. I am very happy they made that decision. I am concerned about the impact of our students' success, though. Almost overnight, students were sent home. The expectation that the parents will take the role of the teacher has left many parents, also working full-time jobs, feeling overwhelmed. I am not worried so much about the households where parents were able to shepherd their kids through the crisis at that time to keep them learning and doing their weekly schoolwork. I am worried about the families who were already having troubles before COVID-19.

Unfortunately, too many households in the Northwest Territories are affected with problems of poverty, addiction, violence. For many students, the school offers respite from the difficulties at home. Now these kids are expected to learn at home. Even the households that parents can cope with the schooling have no Internet access or computers or planning skills for the students to succeed. Of course, there have been some successes, too. I want to acknowledge especially and thank the Beaufort-Delta District Education Council and my DEAs in Nunakput fro making sure that food vouchers were given and making sure kids were fed and ready to learn.

With the release of Emerging Wisely, it looked like the GNWT was ready to immediately resume the school year. Mr. Speaker, I am relieved that that is not the case. Schools need to prepare their classes to resume in the fall, but they are past early days in this crisis. It's now time to start planning on how to resume our classes in the fall and to make sure our academic year is not a write-off. I want to see our kids moving to the next grade when the school year resumes, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment at the appropriate time. Thank you.