Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Chief Jimmy Bruneau residents.
Mr. Speaker, in 1970, the Rae Band Council formed and elected Rae-Edzo School Society to build and operate a new school called Chief Jimmy Bruneau School with a capacity of over 400 students. Chief Jimmy Bruneau School also included a 100-bed residence run by the school society for nonlocal Tlicho students. This residence housed Tlicho children from all of the outlying Tlicho communities as well as N'dilo and Dettah.
Around 1992, when Akaitcho Hall was in the process of closing down, Chief Jimmy Bruneau School became a regional high school where students from Gameti, Wekweeti, Whati, Dettah, and N'dilo were housed in the residence to complete their high school. Around 2004, the residence closed, but the children and youth still remained in Behchoko and moved to boarding homes.
Mr. Speaker, to this day students in Wekweeti who want to complete high school education must move to Behchoko, Whati, and Gameti, and home board with local families. Mr. Speaker, the Rae-Edzo School Society operated the school but it was still a federally funded residential school. My concern is that hundreds of children were housed in residence at Chief Jimmy Bruneau School, yet these people are still not recognized as having had to attend residential school - a school that was designed and funded by the same department that funded residential school.
No students who were forced to attend Chief Jimmy Bruneau School have been eligible for any compensation for their experience at residential school. Mr. Speaker, hundreds of students were forced to leave their homes as young as six and seven years old. I myself remember being in grade 2 with classmates from Whati, Dettah, and N'dilo. These children were forced to leave their parents and safety of their family to attend school hundreds of kilometers away.
Member from Monfwi, your time is up.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you. A school for many children only accessible by plane. This is a traumatic experience, and there is no recognition of the experience these survivors lived through. I will have questions for the Premier. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Members' statements. Member from Frame Lake.
