Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the implementation of the Living Well Together training for all the government of the Northwest Territories staff, it was disturbing for me to hear on the different occasions that some members of the public service are not completing this training. The Living Well Together recognizes that the NWT was first Indigenous land filled with Indigenous people. It recognizes the impact of colonization had on Indigenous people. It explains through firsthand stories how this trauma continues today in the lives of Indigenous residents.
Living Well Together was intended to provide all public servants with Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity training to assist them in their jobs.
Mr. Speaker, I think people throughout Canada, even within the NWT, do not recognize the impact of our collective history built on racism, white privilege, removing Indigenous people from their land, and forcing children out of their culture. Many people don't recognize -- don't truly recognize how Canada's colonial history affects us all today.
Mr. Speaker, many of our Indigenous people struggle with addictions, mental health, high rates of family violence; our children make up most all of the children in care; and the majority of the inmates of the population in our correction facilities. The homeless and underhoused people in the NWT are made up of many residential school survivors or their children.
Mr. Speaker, this is a result of the systemic racism built in governments that has continued since first contact.
Mr. Speaker, this training is extremely important for all public servants in the GNWT to complete, especially those people who deal directly with the public.
Mr. Speaker, we know that non-Indigenous people make up nearly 60 percent of the entire GNWT public service. It is very concerning to me that non-Indigenous public servants, especially those on the frontlines, dealing with directly, with our Elders, our new mothers, our people struggling with addictions, are not properly trained in cultural awareness, or refuse to do so.
I will have questions for the Minister of Finance later today. Mahsi.