Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of great ideas, a lot of great concepts and discussions start from an idea. The Northwest Territories is no stranger to a lot of great things happening in this great country of ours. In the early ‘60s they had a sports excellence program going very strong up in Inuvik called a TEST program where a lot of world-class skiers came about. The Firth twins, the late Fred Kelly, a lot of skiers came from that area and they had a good program, they had access to resources and they did well. So we know that our small communities can do well in any sports given the opportunity. That was an excellent idea. I would like to see that program come to life again.
Also, a lot of good ideas come from a lot of good people. For example, this morning I heard the people talk about the literacy program that happened in Ontario where these students increased their literacy ability by a great percentage. The Department of Education talked about a needs assessment in the Sahtu region. The number one issue for the Sahtu people was literacy. What if we had that program come into our small communities to increase the literacy in our small communities? That would be fantastic.
Another idea that I read about was Dr. Mini Silbert from San Francisco. She worked with 16,000 inmates with no professional help. That idea over 30 years, 90 percent of the inmates that she worked with went to high school, got a degree or went to work.
I think these ideas are going to be fantastic in the North. We have people like Brendan Green, Mike Argue and Brent Betsina all because they worked hard doing what they can do with the support they had. We have a lot of good teachers in our communities who also need to be acknowledged for the sports they’ve contributed to and the students who are now at the Arctic Winter Games. I want to say thank you to all the good people in the small communities for helping our young people, and I hope these ideas take some planning so we can grow them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
