Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s Statement has to deal with O Canada. Our darkest histories of dealing with Aboriginal people have been a struggle because of the experiences of dealing with the residential schools in Canada. Since the 1800s, Aboriginal people have been subject to injustice in all facets of life.
In the early 1900s, the establishment of residential schools were created in Canada. The goal of these residential schools was to eradicate a nation of people, everything about them. The storm of the residential schools certainly did a good job. They caused a lot of havoc in the lives of survivors, their families and the communities within the nation.
With the help of many good people and organizations, Canada was brought to a place of humility and apologized to the First Nations for their past wrongs. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission did a blanket-type of commission by honouring the survivors by giving them a voice and by listening to survivors’ stories across Canada.
I want to ask, has our government taken an inventory of the number of survivors in our communities, of my grandparents, my parents and people like myself who attended the residential schools? Has our government done an assessment of the residential school survivors in our communities, their health needs, their educational needs, their spiritual needs?
It is a fact that the Northwest Territories has the highest per capita of residential school survivors in Canada. There were almost 15,000 students, 25 residential schools that were opened and recognized by Canada and some not recognized by Canada in the Northwest Territories.
I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
