Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the UN, had said, “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” I couldn’t agree more. I really believe education is the true future before us. It’s one we can write and help others write their own future.
I once again call upon this government to take a hard look at what it’s doing to the future of education. We’ve all heard about the travesty of its plan on junior kindergarten, not thought out, well-conceived and believed in, but yet not thought out.
Let us not see another crash against the rocks on the Aurora College future. We see a program here with great promise and potential, but we see little future in it with the government not paying the attention it deserves.
Aurora College, in my view, has a real future in our North. It will have a real factor on where we go in the North. As I said, education is the real future. We must be asking ourselves, are we expanding and working in the right direction? Are we meeting the needs of the people today for the people of tomorrow? We could be expanding our two-year Social Work Program into a four-year bachelor’s program. We could be addressing, through Aurora College, the education needs through our student teacher program. There are so many ways to teach for the future, not teach for just today, not teach and address the past problems. We must pause for an environment that develops the potential of the future, not figure out how to fill holes in the past.
Let us not destroy the potential before us. There are many opportunities here and we may ask ourselves, well, what are they? Let us right a path towards a positive future with Aurora College. Let us blueprint an opportunity.
We’ve all heard about the potential of the Canada Winter Games coming eight short years away. Let us consider this. I’ve asked for the expansion of the college many times. I’m not the only one who has brought this to the House’s attention. The Canada Winter Games will be calling upon this territory, maybe even this city, perhaps this government, to help support an athletes’ village.
What a better gift to the people of Canada, through the Canada Winter Games, than having an athletes’ village that was turned over to the future of the college? That would be the future of every student who wants to be educated in the North, and that would create the type of potential, foster an environment and show that education matters to Northerners. I know it certainly matters to me and it definitely matters to everyone on this side of the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
