Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this week is Education Week I would like to speak about the education system. Obviously, one of the most vital things that I think is part of the education system is our educators. We have some 800 educators in the Northwest Territories, and I think we need to take our time this week to recognize them and the hard efforts they put into our communities.
Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet with the NWT Teachers’ Association. They were able to provide us with information. It makes you think when you see the listing, in all 33 communities there’s at least one teacher. Even the small communities like Kakisa and Jean Marie River. They’re a vital part of our infrastructure in the Northwest Territories.
In preparation for making a statement on education, I was thinking, what do I want to say? I obviously wanted to talk about teachers. Personally, when we think of our lives growing up, we always have teachers like Irma Miron for kindergarten, Jack Cooper for Grade 5, and then Mr. Gerry Goudreau for high school. He was a high school educator who gave me advice on where to go for university and stuff. Those are some of the people who influenced me in my life. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the educators who are there right now working long, hard hours, grading papers and all this other stuff during their off hours.
Again, the whole concept is for me to thank the educators out there who are doing the hard work in the education system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Eight regions, 33 communities, 49 schools, 800 educators, 8,350 students over 1.3 million square kilometres. This is, of course, the framework of our education landscape, and it is pretty impressive I must say.
Today we celebrate and give our heartfelt thanks to the profession that is the pillar of our education system, and I am referring to our teachers and our teachers’ aides out there. To be a bit different this year, I thought it would be fun to spell the word teacher using a few of the over 2,700 thank you excerpts from students from across the North who were gathered for this year’s Thank You for Making a Difference campaign sponsored by the Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association.
T is for thank you for always being friendly to me.
E is for everything they do.
A is for always fun to play with.
C is for cares that I am safe.
H is for helps me keep going.
E is for eternally grateful.
R is for respects who I am.
No matter how you spell it, we are very thankful for the over 800 educators in our schools who contribute so strongly to our healthy communities. On behalf of the Members here today, we salute you, the educators, the teachers, the teachers’ aides, and thank you as we strive to work together in the next couple of years in using new innovative learning approaches for our students and our families across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
