Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Time and time again we repeat our own words about the importance of our students staying in school, attending regularly and completing high school. Education is one of our main focuses in this Assembly. We can boast that we have the best schools in all of Canada and employ top notch teachers. Our students are privileged to have such fine education, but this is only possible with good teachers.
My concern today is housing, housing for our teachers. We are faced with this issue every summer. We hire the best teachers, and in the end, we have no place for them to stay.
My community of Aklavik suffers with the lack of adequate housing for temporary residents and housing for staff. There are at least 15 teaching positions in Aklavik and many of them are filled with people to come here, eager for the opportunity to work in the North. Inadequate and unaffordable housing makes their jobs less attractive and their lives much more difficult.
Leadership in Aklavik is concerned about our teachers. The community wants to make housing available to them and it’s willing to partner with government to build houses and provide quality housing, especially if there’s a commitment that someone will live there every year.
Aklavik and all of the Mackenzie Delta communities need school professionals. Let’s give them a place to call home. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
