Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know that this one, it's phase 1 and phase 2, but phase 1 was an important part of this legislation. Phase 1 is the one that, you know, that included to work with the Indigenous government. And I still feel that this Minister missed the opportunity of working with the Indigenous government to modernize the Education Act. This was a step for us, for especially with the Indigenous government and this would have been a good start to the reconciliation. And they missed that. They missed that opportunity. And that is why a lot of Indigenous government, they were opposed with the phase 1. Phase 2. I mean, phase 2 is also important, it's good, but that's after the fact. It was the phase 1. For the first time, the Indigenous government would have been part of working on the education system for their people. But no, we were left out. So I still feel that they missed the opportunity because, you know, just like what my colleague said over there, Ron and Caitlin and Katrina, talking about the education system, you know, on the tour and a lot of people did say that, you know. And I don't mean to discredit anyone. I don't mean to discredit the Indigenous teachers, language teachers; they are doing their best. But we are lacking a lot of resources in small communities. And we even have some schools that are still teaching multi grade. I mean, that's -- that's not right because there lots of kids are falling through the crack. You know, they're not getting the proper education. When a teacher is focusing on grade 1 and 2, like, and 3, and only have one support sometimes, they don't have the support, so the teacher is teaching all grades in one class. Those kinds of things have to stop. And we don't even have access to speech and language pathologists in a lot of small communities.

This is one of the things that we're -- the department can come in, wait and fix if later. It's too later for many by then because you can't do nothing. There's -- that's where lots of -- a lot of young kids, we noticed that they quit because they can't function. They miss out on lots of things. So this is where I think -- that's why I said that, you know, this was -- phase 1 was the one that -- we could have made lot of the mistakes that were made in the past right through this in phase 1. Phase 2 is okay. That's after, like I said. But I think that -- it's just more program and more resources is needed in small communities so that our young people can catch up so we can have -- we all want a lot of our youth to be educated in two languages, you know, and we all want our kids to become doctors, lawyers, astronauts, all those high level professionals that in other regions take advantage of. We can't take advantage of any of those things because we're still lacking. And I know that today is the Orange Shirt Day, and I know that a lot of -- I heard lot of comment made before that education starts from the house, from our home. But how can it -- how can that be when a lot of these young -- these parents did not know how to parent and they just -- and it goes to the next generation, and that's why we have 98 percent of children in child welfare systems. So this is where I think we could have made all those -- the mistakes that were made from the beginning, we could have fixed it.

And I don't blame -- I don't blame any of those Indigenous government that wants to take over the education program because they don't want their next generation to go through what our past generation, us, we went through. We don't want that. And we want our kids to function at that level. And it's just -- yes, larger regional centre do have the advantage and we don't. And even us in Tlicho region, where just right next door we're still being denied a lot of programs and services and we have to come to Yellowknife to access those. Even for speech and language, some of those parents they have to come here. And for small communities in Sahtu, you know, like, they have to come here or Inuvik to access those programs. And it's just really, really frustrating, and this is where -- like, what I would like to see for the next government is that more programs and services should be going out to the small communities and start focusing on the little kids. We still have hope, we can still do it; it's just that we need more resources. And let's not focus too much on larger regional centre because we have the same rights as anybody else. Our kids have the same rights as anybody else. And this is very shameful for me even to talk about it, to say these things. It's really shameful. And it shouldn't be like that. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further questions for the social development report? Member for Nunakput.

I just want to thank my colleagues for going out to the communities and hearing all the concerns that we do have and, like, with the social passing has to stop. We have to put more emphasis into our children and our youth that are coming up and giving them a chance to succeed in life instead of putting up roadblocks and barriers. I think that the social passing and with the new curriculum coming in, I really hope that we could really get in front of it and start working with the communities and all of the local community governments and the -- like, with us it's the Beaufort Delta Education Council. And, like, I do have communities in my riding that have one teacher, two teachers that, you know, it's tough on them, extra work, and a lot less students. But at the end of the day, you want to give all that student all the tools to succeed in life. I think what we have to really realize here that all the problems and issues we have right now is because of not being our children educated. And right now, from the youth, the kids from 30 down, are having a tough time. They're really having a tough time because of the drugs, the alcohol, that's all happening, and they're having -- there's no -- and the biggest part of that is because of the education, and they don't think they could do it. But once you apply yourself and put a hundred percent effort in what you're doing, anybody could do whatever they want. But just a matter of encouraging them. And I just wonder, yeah, for the next government and that going forward, I think we have to put more emphasis on -- like, everybody, like it's so easy for us to say oh yeah, our youth are our future. But there's nothing backing that up. We have to back it up. We have to make a difference now. And all the problems that we're having with the housing and all these problems that we're having in this Assembly with, you know, justice, health care, it's all going to start pulling back. It's not going to be so bad once everybody's educated. And like I said, I'm going to stop here but social passing has to stop in the communities and across our territory because it's just going to alleviate the pressure as us as legislators in this Assembly on the go forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. I will now turn -- Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also want to make a couple comments. We got to keep remembering that education is a treaty right. Based on the treaties that was made in 1900, and Treaty 8, my great great grandfather's the one that signed the treaty in Fort Resolution. And Treaty 8 -- Treaty 11 was made in 1921 up and down the valley. And when the treaty was made, it was made with the Crown. And the Government of Canada was supposed to uphold those treaties. That's why we got a Governor General, and here we have a Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. When we do an oath to office here, it says that we're supposed to recognize and respect the treaties that are made. And what's going on now is that the way the Government of Canada is managing how they're going to deal with Aboriginal people here in Canada are done so through land claims and self-government agreements. And not everybody signed onto the agreements as well; there's still ongoing agreements that are being negotiated. But right now as it is, the Government of Canada has agreement with the Government of the Northwest Territories that was created in 1967. And a lot of the Aboriginal people still don't recognize this government as their government. It's still recognized as a territorial council, Territorial Act under Indian and Northern Affairs.

The thing is that what's happening now is that we have -- now that we got some settled claims, a lot of these governments are now -- are really frustrated because they want to enhance the education at the community level, build new schools -- I've been advocating to get a new school in Dettah. And the dates on those schools that I seen in some of the material I was reading before are saying that that school is probably 1987 or even '88. But that's not right. You know, it goes back to probably even earlier, to 1978, when they were trailers. And, again, you know, it's getting to the point now where the Indigenous governments are actually wanting to do a letter to the Governor General themselves and say hey look, we need a new school. We can't continue to go after the territorial government for a school because they're not delivering, and they're not honouring and respecting those treaties but yet 75 cents on the dollar is grants and contributions that comes from the Government of Canada.

So I think it's something that we really need to take a look at as a government, is that, you know, we got to start working -- start working together, start building relationships, and we need to start building trust. But a part of this committee, we got a letter from the N'dilo DEA expressing their issues and concerns. There's a lot of DEAs up and down the Valley but we all have to fall under the Education Act. But that Act also is competing with our treaties, and that needs to be recognized and -- because it's a -- our treaties are in the Canadian Constitution on section 35 (1) and (2). And the Territorial Council is -- you know, they've -- basically, in theory maybe we're agents of the Government of Canada. We're, in theory, meaning the Crown, we're doing the Crown work but we're not upholding those treaties.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's getting to the point now where -- and I mentioned earlier that the Indigenous governments are now -- are concluding their claims. Some are not there yet. But they're really frustrated because, you know, they want to go directly to Canada now and start getting that money that they give to the territorial government to be diverted to them so they could provide their own education, maybe create their own Education Act, etcetera.

But anyway, Madam Chair, I just want to make a note of this because I want to continue to emphasize that education is a treaty right. And I want to make sure that this government continues to respect that because we have an oath. It's in the Canadian Constitution. We can't change it; it's there. And going forward, we need to think about doing business different now. And that's why I'm -- sometimes I wonder now maybe we need to start having those discussions about how we're going to move forward and coexist down the line.

Whenever I sit here and I see committees come in front of this desk here and asking for all these monies for these departments, it's really frustrating because when I sit here and I look at it, no problem but yet whenever the communities want something, it's different. So I just want to just make a note of that because to me, again, I want to emphasize we do have a treaty. It's alive and well. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment create a stakeholder plan that prioritizes meaningful engagement and face-to-face meetings with Indigenous governments, youths, students, community members, and elders. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment draft aspirational legislation for its next iteration of the Education Act that takes a holistic, trauma-informed, and culturally-responsive approach to education that is accountable to all NWT communities, its residents and, most of all, its youth. Thank you.

The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Madam Chair, I think it would be very remiss if we didn't talk with this motion about the incidences that we have seen over the last while in some of our schools, which includes some pretty disturbing video footage that was shot in the community of Fort Simpson. I did not see anything in that video that showed a trauma-informed or culturally-appropriate approach.

And giving -- in watching that video, it was very disturbing to see that there was comments being made, and in contact with the family afterwards, they told me that their child no longer wants to go to school and very much spoke to me about the legacy of the residential schools and how this had invoked for the family a lot of -- a history of trauma. I think this has been a conversation that us on social development and AOC as a whole has had throughout the entire time on the Assembly, was this trauma-informed approach. As I deal with other departments that deal with marginalized people in the territory, I time and again see that this is not happening. A case in point was the income assistance letters that went out and slid under doors threatening everybody that their rent was going from $80 up to $1,600 because they hadn't filed income tax. So this government has a really long way to go in being trauma-informed and actually carrying that out in their work instead of just speaking to it and paying lip service to it. So I think that this is a very important motion, and I hope that everybody will support it. Thank you.

Thank you. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment work with education bodies and schools to promote school attendance by building on community strengths and parental involvement.

Madam Chair, if I can speak to this one briefly. When we were visiting communities, attendance was something that came up quite frequently. And what we were met with was a lot of people from a place of wanting to positively participate as a community and as a parent group in finding solutions along with the department and supporting one another in order to increase student attendance. And so I think this is one where there's a lot of desire to use creativity to find different ways to get students back into schools and keep them there. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Next time wait until after the motion is called, and then you can make your statement. No, I won't want make you repeat yourself.

The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment build a northern-specific model of coordinated wraparound services for NWT schools. Thank you.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.