Mr. Speaker, we've all heard about the significant cuts coming to the Jordan's Principle program, a federal program that many schools depend on to support their students. For weeks now, schools across the North have watched as their application for Jordan's Principle funding for the fall have come back denied, leaving them with a massive funding shortfall. Let me give you a concrete example of how devastating these cuts are.
Last week, I learned that Lutselk'e Dene First Nations school is losing five full-time education assistants, all of whom were funded through the Jordan's Principle program. In Fort Resolution where the Metis students make up a large portion of the school population, new eligibility restriction means Deninu Kue School stands to lose a significant amount of federal funding. Meanwhile, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment currently funds just one student assistant in Lutselk'e and only for a few hours a week. This is a stark example of the chronic underfunding of Indigenous education in our territory despite the fact that education is also a sacred treaty right.
This longstanding neglect has already forced families to leave their traditional communities in search of better education opportunities and, now, even schools in Yellowknife are at risk. Together, the Catholic and public school boards in Yellowknife, they receive over $50 million from Jordan's Principle funding each year, funding that is now in serious jeopardy.
When schools reopen this fall, a crisis of Indigenous education will begin, unless this Minister talks immediate action to restore the Jordan's Principle funding. So today I'm calling on the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to meet with school boards across the North this summer and to provide a clear and immediate commitment to restore at least some of this critical funding. If the Minister fails to take this opportunity, she risks becoming the first education Minister in the North leaving education in worse shape than she found it. And she also inherited this from the 19th Assembly so this is a very important to the Indigenous people in my riding. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister for ECE at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife North.
