Mr. Speaker, education legacy in Fort Smith has always been a topic that has been dear to my heart. When Yellowknife was named the capital of the NWT in 1967, Fort Smith was designated the education centre of the NWT. Fort Smith's education legacy is very prominent, and we are so proud to be leading the role in this field. Many of our former leaders, including Premiers, Ministers, former and current Members of Parliament, mayors, chiefs, and others have all gone through Fort Smith to advance their education. I say this because I want to remind people of the tangible value that Fort Smith education has contributed to the development of the NWT. People tend to forget that Fort Smith has been the focal point for education for many years in this territory.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Auditor General's Report on Early Childhood to Grade 12 Education in the Northwest Territories, which was tabled last week. While there were a number of troubling aspects identified in that report, I am confident that the gaps identified will be addressed by the members of the district education authority, the local education authority, and by senior management and staff in the community of Fort Smith. In order to address the education gaps in this report, proper funding must be allocated to the local and district education authorities.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, I want to highlight the important work that is done at the level of the district education authority and all staff at our elementary and high schools in Fort Smith. Every single person who works within these institutions contributes in some way to the development of our children, of our future citizens and leaders. Whether it's people at the janitorial level or at the superintendent level, they all play a role in our children's development, and I want to thank them for their service, including all teachers from junior kindergarten to grade 12. Thank you for introducing Aboriginal languages and cultural-based programming with best practices to enhance the education system at all levels in Fort Smith.

Moreover, Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge and appreciate the strong academic background that all the staff at Aurora College Thebacha campus hold. We have a very well-educated group of instructors who teach in all areas at our campus, and I would like to thank them for choosing Fort Smith as their preferred venue to teach. I want them to know that our community values their knowledge, and I certainly hope that the education system as a whole for the NWT will also value their knowledge.

As Aurora College transfers into a polytech university, it is vital that we recognize the strong academic background of the staff at Aurora College Thebacha campus. Our academics and staff at Aurora College must be supported and celebrated. [Microphone turned off]

---Unanimous consent granted

So it's not by need; it's by per capita?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think either one of you has answered my question. I said, is it going to be by need, or is it going to be by per capita, the $5 million distributed?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess my question is: reducing the funding gap by $5 million, if the funds are going to be distributed evenly over the communities, including Yellowknife, how much does that leave for a community? How is it going to be done? Is it going to be done by demand, or is it going to be done per capita, or is it going to be done by -- I would like to know that.

Madam Chair, I just want to make sure that I just wanted to say that this is an excellent priority. I think, when the decision-making was taken away from regions and communities, our people in the communities and regions do not want to come to headquarters for decisions. They would like to have those decisions made at their level. I think that's an excellent move, and, on behalf of all of us here, when we made this priority, I want to thank everybody in the room for that. Thank you so much.

I understand where you're coming from, and I know your heart is there, too. Indigenous people have always taken a back seat for a long time, especially on some of these issues. It goes hand-in-hand. My former colleague says that with the settlement of claims and the implementation of claims and all these, it's a very big issue because we can't do development in a lot of these areas because of the claim issue. It's just going to benefit everybody much more if we do everything in a more, I guess, in a fashion that won't take years to do. Eighteen years after a settlement of a claim and we are still waiting for the implementation is a bit long. I hope we are not going to wait that long. I will never see this happen. Thank you so much. I don't have any other questions.

I'm sorry, Madam Premier, but I'm just so passionate about this whole issue. It's just the concept. I said the AIP. We do AIPs all the time. It doesn't have to be AIP. It could be an MOU saying that we are going to be doing some of these things, and we are going to implement this. We have 19 or 20 or 33, I think it's 33, First Nations or Indigenous groups in the territories. I don't know exactly how many there are, but there are more than that. We get them to sign that we're going to end up doing this, at least have something so that people have an understanding that we're going to do this. If you're going to put the onus on the First Nations and wait for them to get this together, that's not going to happen. I want us to show the leadership to actually do this.

Just a clarification on my comments. I'm saying why couldn't we agree with an AIP, with all the governments, all the Indigenous governments, to ensure that -- we do it all the time with Indigenous governments as a first step in negotiation, that we're going to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It's an agreement-in-principle really. All the other things will be worked out later.

Putting the onus on Indigenous governments, on the leadership of Indigenous governments to move this forward is not acceptable. Leadership by the Government of the Northwest Territories to move this forward is acceptable. If you are going to wait for the Indigenous governments and you're going to divide and conquer, it's never going to happen. We have to make sure that we show leadership to ensure that this passes. Why can't we at least do something in the meantime, and you do AIP's for agreements in principle. Why don't we have an agreement-in-principle to implement the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous people, and worry about all the other things after? At least, we have stated and said that this is what we're going to do. I think there are other ways of moving forward with this and not waiting for years and years. We have AIPs all the time. Why can't we have an AIP that we are going to move forward and do this? It shows that we have leadership as a government. We are all on board about that, and it moves the Indigenous governments a step forward in the right direction. That's all we're asking.