Mr. Speaker, here in the North, education is a treaty right. In our territory where our communities have long faced severe disadvantages, the rights carriers a unique responsibility to reverse generations of inequality. Our schools embrace the responsibility dedicating themselves to equipping Indigenous children with the knowledge they need to succeed and connections to their culture from which they can draw strength. This is how our schools have become, severe hubs for our communities where staff go above and beyond to help families to access the support they need. Indigenous families rely on their schools to guide them in navigating and accessing a wide range of assistance for their children's unique needs, and this is all made possible through the federal government Jordan's Principle program. However, we have long known that the federal government is signalling that they're cutting back.
We don't know what changes are coming but for months, our government has been warned that the school could lose the funding they need for teacher assistants, culture programs, and essential services such as literacy interventions and speech therapy. Over the past few months, the Premier, the finance Minister, and the Minister of ECE all have gone to Ottawa to advocate for this funding to continue but we don't know what, if anything, they achieved. Meanwhile, the $14 million they've offered, roughly a quarter of that lost funding depends on the school drawn for the surplus and surpluses they save for other priorities, such as programs or maintenance of the school. Any day now, we could hear the truth from Ottawa that there are significant cuts to Jordan's Principle funding. Our treaty rights to education would rest solely with our territorial government as they could no longer rely on the federal government to shoulder the responsibility. In that case, the government must take these treaty rights as serious as our schools do and provide adequate funding so schools can continue delivering these vital services.
Right now, there are reviews of inclusive education in the event of that Jordan's Principle is cut. I am calling on that review to ensure meaningful consultation and accommodation with First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities, and all northern schools so we develop an updated model that ensures territorial funding to these vital programs and services. I will have questions for the Premier at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member from Deh Cho.
