Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I cannot stress enough how important ensuring access to education is in our territory. You know, every aspect of our lives is directly related to access to education. And access to education, I can say, is incredibly important to me. We're working certainly very hard within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to address the need to improve the education outcomes of students right across the territory. And I would be happy as well to sit down with the Member and show some of the actions that have taken place over the last, I believe, three years, and not all three years ago, but over time, over the last three years. And, really, what jump started a lot of it was the report from the Auditor General of Canada that really came up to the Northwest Territories and said you guys need to, you know -- you got some work to do. And so certainly, we embraced that report and got to work right away. And so some of that had to do with training classroom assistants. Some of it was access to training for teachers who are doing multigrade classrooms. Some of it was assessments across classrooms. There is also in the same breath changes being made to the early learning and child care sector within the Northwest Territories and also within the training expectation of people working within that sector because we know that that is what ensures that students are ready when they get to school and they're being -- they're having access to supports before they get there if they are, for example, nonverbal and needing supports in that.

The other thing that's incredibly important as part of this work that is taking place over the course of this term is changes to the Education Act. And I cannot stress enough how important that is because that is a piece of legislation that is going to be done in collaboration with Indigenous governments. And when we talk about the importance of understanding the Northwest Territories, having social legislation that is drafted in partnership, drafted in collaboration, is incredibly important, especially when we want to ensure that everyone in the territory sees themselves in the legislation that's guiding something as important as education. So that is incredibly important work that's being done.

But I hear the Member, and the Member is looking for solutions today, and I think that working together and ensuring that some of the programs that I've spoke of earlier, so whether it's the SNAP program or it is the wage subsidy or working with -- within the community, for example, with modular learning, for example, like Fort Smith and the success they've seen through their Phoenix program. They have had 18 graduates in that program in a community the size of Fort Smith last year. And I cannot speak highly enough of the program and being able to accept that we need to meet students where they're at and support them to grow from there and support them to successfully complete their education from there. So there are solutions that -- and frameworks and solutions that the department of education puts together, and it really does take all levels of government and organizations working together to see the success of students across the territory. And I'll stop there, Madam Chair.