Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize the East Three Secondary graduating class of 2021, and all the graduates of Class 2021 in the Northwest Territories on achieving this milestone through a pandemic, as they had to spend their entire final school year under COVID restrictions. I wish you luck on the next chapter of your lives.
I would also like to congratulate the college, university, and trade students from my community and the Northwest Territories who will or have graduated this year. Like I said, the pandemic has put a real twist on learning not just in the Northwest Territories but the entire country and possibly the world.
Mr. Speaker, you know, I'm very afraid of how this will be in the future. Our students have missed many days of school. Our attendance rates are lower than they have been, and this was already a problem. I just wish that, you know, that when we move forward after with all the restrictions that there is going to be a plan in place, Mr. Speaker, for our students to be able to be supported to be caught up so that this last 15 months was not a waste of their schooling, because we all know that moving forward, you know, you want to move on with your students, you want to move on with your classes, you want to graduate, you have future goals. I'm sure these grade 12 students have future goals but are all going to be put on hold whether or not they can attend university, whether or not they can, you know -- these are all things that we're going to be facing in the fall. So I just wanted to recognize that and congratulate all the hard work of all the students in the Northwest Territories, right from all the little junior kindergartens right up to our post-secondary.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to recognize that June is National Indigenous History Month, and Saturday is the 37th year of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement when it was signed, and there will be some COVID-restricted celebrations going on in my community, and I'm sure throughout the Inuvialuit Region. So I just wanted to recognize and hope to be -- to make it home to celebrate with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.