Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the honourable Glen Abernethy will be late arriving in the House today due to a personal matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

For clarification, the Government of Canada announced that the Beaufort Sea was indefinitely off-limits to new offshore oil and gas licences, to be tested every five years by a science-based review. We have received very little information on how the science-based review will be undertaken, other than the Prime Minister has written to us and advised that Minister Bennett and Ministers Carr will be leading the review.

I am pleased to say that the Truth and Reconciliation Committee recognized the Government of the Northwest Territories for its leadership not only in cultural awareness but also the fact that the history of residential schools and also our land-claim negotiations are in our curriculum. We focused on mandatory training for students and educators. That has been our main priority.

Our expectation is that we will eventually have all of our employees undertaking cultural awareness training, and we will continue. Right now, we will focus on new employees as they come on board. We are hiring a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Education is one of the most important priorities of this government, and I think that the Truth and Reconciliation report certainly confirmed that and made some concrete recommendations, which we have embraced. In 2015, the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students was reflected in the fact that 67 per cent of non-Aboriginal students graduated compared to 56 per cent of Aboriginal students. Obviously, we have a ways to go to improve on that. The major initiative that the Government of the Northwest Territories is using to narrow the gap is the NWT Education...

Our government has even gone above and beyond that. Instead of a special event day we have a statutory holiday called Aboriginal Day where everybody gets one day off a year. If you are working for the Government of the Northwest Territories, you can learn about Aboriginal history and culture. Also, you can go out and participate. Aboriginal people can celebrate the fact that they are Aboriginal. Also, we provide funding to those Aboriginal groups who want to participate on Aboriginal Day. We are always looking for ways to promote that. I think that the fact that over 50 per cent of our...

I am pleased to report that the community wellness fairs are proceeding. They are going very well. The most recent ones were in K'atlodeeche. At the NWT Associate and Communities AGM, they brought in some of their props. You could walk through a colon, so you could get people to go and get checked out for colon cancer. I think the most important message to people is prevention and that people are the ones that, if they practise prevention, they will be healthier. I think a large part of the measurement will be how healthy people are going forward.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that the Finance Minister will be dealing with that, and we will be responding at the appropriate time to committee on where we are at with additional GSOs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is not a business where I can guarantee or give any assurances. All I can say is we are giving it an all-out effort to significantly advance the outstanding land claims. I believe that with these additional resources and renewed effort and new approach, that we will make significant progress. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right, I have Mike Aumond, the deputy minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. To my left, I have Terence Courtoreille, the director of Shared Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This will benefit all friendship centres in the Northwest Territories. There is an old saying that, if you give somebody a fish, they will eat for one day. If you teach them how to fish, they can feed themselves for the rest of their life. I think this is akin to that, where we are helping fund a fundraiser. We will match the amount of money that they raise up to a further $180,000, then we are going to do it on a two-year basis, and then we will review it after that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.