Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to share with you an exciting initiative that will move forward some of our government’s top priorities, enabling Aboriginal youth to achieve their potential through quality education and developing home-grown solutions to our labour market challenges.
I am proud to announce that the Council of Ministers of Education Canada has asked me to co-lead a national initiative to improve Aboriginal education across Canada with my Alberta counterpart. This appointment recognizes our experience in developing residential school teaching resources in partnership with the Government of Nunavut and the Legacy of Hope Foundation.
Last year I made a commitment to ensure that all NWT teachers are aware of the history and legacy of residential schools. We have now provided training to the majority of teachers and, by the end of this year, all teachers in the territory will have participated in this awareness training. We are recognized as a national leader in this area.
For the national initiative, I want to build on this experience as well as on the groundbreaking ideas in our new Education Renewal and Innovation Framework: Directions for Change. We have proposed to focus on post-secondary teacher training and the increased recruitment of Aboriginal teachers all across Canada.
We want to ensure all of Canada’s teachers acknowledge and have a clear understanding of our country’s past, specifically of the very real impacts of past residential schools on Aboriginal students today.
As such, we have also proposed to focus at the national level on encouraging more Aboriginal young people to pursue teaching as a career. Building a workforce of dedicated, local Aboriginal teachers will produce even greater benefits for our territory and our country.
Aboriginal teachers who are members of the community and who share the same culture and traditions are better equipped to bring the school into the community and the community into the school. Strengthening this relationship helps students understand the importance of, and builds strong bonds between, education and the community.
Mr. Speaker, Aboriginal youth are the fastest growing segment of our population and will play a key role in our country’s future. They are starting to look to our young people to fill worker shortages, both north and south of 60. Aboriginal students’ success stems from their sense of identity, growing up proud of themselves, their communities and their cultures. Increasing and retaining the number of Aboriginal teachers in our schools is an obvious way to support that student growth.
The support from my fellow Ministers of Education will underline the national understanding that we must offer equitable access to educational opportunities and services to Aboriginal students so they have the skills and knowledge they need to reach this potential.
It reinforces that we must do more than simply bridge the gap. We need to support young people’s educational success so they can live fulfilled lives and contribute to stable, healthy and productive communities and a prosperous country.
Members of this Assembly know that investments in our children are investments in the future of the NWT and our country. I am truly encouraged by the priority being given to improving education for Aboriginal youth by my fellow Education Ministers. I am equally proud to be able to put our territory on the national stage as we lead the way in Aboriginal education. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
