Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, our numbers of veterans from the Second World War and the Korean War are dropping.
Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment tell this House of any strategies our school divisions are doing to engage or to bring our veterans into our schools to tell our youth about these chapters in our history?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It’s very important that we highlight our veterans. Remembrance Day is fast approaching. These are areas that we need to continue to push into our school system, not only our school system but also our communities, the regional centres. We do have regional representatives and even those seniors that have been part of the process, if they can be visible in our community schools. There are some areas of activities and events that are happening in the various communities and the school systems. The Member is raising a really valid question that we must address with the board chairs, and I will be addressing that on how can we expedite this process and even having those veterans more visible in our school system and even presenting to our students as well.
I’m certainly glad to hear that the Minister is thinking about expediting this process and speaking to the board chairs. The point that I got was making it visible in our schools.
I want to ask the Minister if his department could look at school projects across the Northwest Territories to research and document in our communities all the vets that have served in the past, future and current, serving in our Canadian Armed Forces. All the vets, so that there can be a designated spot in our schools so that this could be proudly displayed as the veterinary hall of fame for our veterinaries from our communities. Can that happen?
Some of those projects are already happening across the Northwest Territories when it comes to career fairs. There are areas of interest, even the history, heritage display, we see students displaying the Remembrance Day. We see students displaying their ancestors or their grandfathers who have gone to, whether it be World War II or other areas of impact in the Northwest Territories, veterans, the history. It is also part of the social studies, as well, the history program that we are currently delivering as part of the northern studies. Again, it’s an area that we need to address with the school system.
Just as recently there’s a residential school curriculum development, there’s a land claim self-government currently in the works as well. This is an area that has been brought to my attention just recently, so I will be making an effort to be part of the school process as well.
In my excitement, I said veterinarians. I meant veterans. Veterans, for the record. I thank my honourable colleague, Mr. Hawkins, for reminding me.
The veterans in our communities that have passed have served, and they are in the community. Sometimes they are the forgotten soldiers, and it’s very key and important that in our schools where the young ones look up to community members, it will be something for them to have in our schools, as the Minister, to say we want to designate a special spot in our schools for our veterans to be honoured. Young children will be proudly smiling as they see their family members honoured this way in our communities.
I want to ask the Minister to strongly push, given the time that we have today, that this piece of request could be implemented and ready for next year to open a spot in our schools to honour our veterans in the North.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member that these veterans should not be forgotten. They are a part of our history and also our identity, so we need to honour them. This is an area that I will be pushing with my school boards, that I work very closely with, to have their presence in our school system, some visibility of the history.
I will commit to the Member that this will be addressed. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know Veteran Affairs is a federal department. We should look into working with our vets, even those who are retired from peacetime or recent servants in Afghanistan.
Are there any educational credits for retired veterans that can apply to further their education?
Mr. Speaker, as I stated before, there is a variety of programs within our department, not only my department but other departments as well. We need to find out if there is such a program specifically for the targeted individuals. I’m making a commitment in this House that this is an area that we should seriously look at, because we go through the process every year, remembering our veterans on Remembrance Day. There could be some sort of a…(inaudible)…that the Member is asking about. It will take some time to get to that stage, but I will be following through with the stakeholders. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
