Thank you, Madam Chair. I have to say that this bill, and our taking it on the road, was probably one of the more impactful ones that I have had in the last while, or has struck me in the last while, was that just how deeply and passionate the people in the territory are about the education system and really where the state of it is when you look outside of Yellowknife. I didn't expect to hear the stories that I heard I guess, really. And I do want to -- like I my colleague said, express my thank you to those that shared with us. A lot of it, and you know yourself, Madam Chair, as being part of that committee, there were a lot of really tragic stories. You know, I never thought about the fact that somebody who was upgrading and then going off to an education in the south would become so demoralized upon not being able to keep up with their colleagues that they would then turn to self-harm. And I really wanted to thank the mother that shared that story with us. It was very painful. But it really impacted me in seeing the bigger picture of how these failures in our education system is impacting the youth in every way. Even the ones that have done what they're supposed to do and have made it through and have upgraded and have gone on only to find out that they don't meet the criteria and they don't have the same qualifications as the rest of Canada. And I can't imagine what that does to someone's psyche and their mental health when, you know, they've been this crowning jewel of their community and only to then come back and feel like a failure.

You know, I was really impressed upon me doing this was as we toured schools and such -- I had already mentioned the state of the school in Deline, that was really impactful. But I think the biggest thing was the disappointment from members of the public that this wasn't the be all/end all opening of the Education Act that was going to be, you know, the driver for the mandate item to improve educational outcomes.

I understand why it was done this way and that there were certain things that administratively needed to be done but, in retrospect, I think that it felt then very much -- very dismissive in a sense to community members that they were being told that they were yet going to have to wait even further.

When this Assembly first got in, it spoke a lot about education and about the children and the youth, and that seems to really have gone by the by. And I get that we've had, you know, crises after crises and environmental issues and pandemics and such, but it's not an excuse to not do things in the right manner. And so I'm glad that there was a good back and forth with the department. We heard a lot of concern around the transportation and that was not carried forward, and I appreciate that that was, you know, a compromise, and I think we worked well with the department in this regard on this bill. But I felt just the disappointment of the people in what this was.

And I guess just to not belabour that point any further, one piece that I think is really key that needs to be taken forward into the next Assembly is that the Indigenous governments that have their self-government already figured out, their next plan is to take on their Education Acts. So as we're moving this legislation forward and we embark on phase 2, it really needs to be done in that collaborative manner so that we're not setting up a new system that then contradicts whatever the community of Deline wants to do for themselves or what the Tlicho may want to do with their Education Act. And I'm excited for that. I actually -- it was sort of the thing about it all that I was like, you know what, let's let the Indigenous people do this, let's let them take it on and take care of the children because it's not working the way it is right now.

So just some of my rambling thoughts on our bill. But I do want to also say thank you very much to the communities that welcomed us in. It really was a pretty fabulous trip, and they were very welcoming, and we had some amazing discussions with people there. So thank you.