Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on a heartwarming note to end the week, I'd like to shine a spotlight on the transformative work that the NWT Literacy Council has been doing in communities across the territory. Their program Reading Together provides opportunities for fathers who are incarcerated to connect with their children through bedtime stories. They get to choose a book that their children would like, create a reading kit to send to their kids, including new pajamas, stuffies, and a toothbrush, and then the dad gets to make a recording of him reading the book and sending bedtime wishes. This program, with the help of the North Slave Correctional Centre, is strengthening language skills and literacy for both children and fathers in a powerful way. It bridges the physical distance separating families while nurturing the special emotional bond that is forged during bedtime story time.
Another innovative NWT Literacy Council program launched earlier this year is called Early Words. It's a partnership with the Department of Health and Social Services, along with the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation and the Canadian Pediatrics Society. Early Words was actually created by a speech-language pathologist, and it recognizes that the foundation for literacy starts right from birth. It helps train frontline health care providers in how best to support families with early language and brain development long before a child reaches junior kindergarten.
The program has been piloted in Inuvik and Tsiigehtchic and has involved elders and traditional knowledge experts to understand how best to support early language development. The program also provides culturally appropriate books to health centres that are distributed to families and oriented to children at specific ages and stages of development. The funding for the literacy council's involvement in the Early Words project ends next March 2025 but the intention, I understand, is for HSS to carry on supporting early language development with the tools and resources provided through the project.
Now, I know that our health system has some tough work ahead to identify core and noncore services in order to make our system more sustainable, but I truly hope that this kind of program is viewed as core because of its crucial role in building our economic and social foundations. Mr. Speaker, these Literacy Council programs are critical to set the stage for future lifelong learning, and I commend them on their work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
