Thank you very much.
Yes, the Mi'kmaq Education Act and the Mi'kmaq agreement are very successful and are our model for first nations education for the country. It's what we call a sectoral self-government agreement. It's a self-governing agreement for the Mi'kmaq that relates to education and has contributed significantly to closing an education gap between the Mi'kmaq communities and the children there and the provincial school system. At the same time it's provided culturally relevant programming, including Mi'kmaq language and culture. It came into effect in 1997. There were nine of 13 first nations then and now the agreement covers 12 of the 13 first nations in Nova Scotia. I think that in itself shows you a bit of the success; the fact that more first nations have chosen to join.
The annual report put out by the Mi'kmaq education authority reports a high school graduation rate of 87.7% in 2012-13, which is really significant and a clear indication of success. Their attendance rate is 86.3%, which is also very good, and they end up with about 100 post-secondary graduates every year. All the indicators are of a very successful program.
There have been two new schools in the past three years through capital funding provided under the agreement. They have a really good relationship with the province. That's another lesson we've learned through this, that a close relationship with the provincial education system is often very useful to achieve good success.
The funding in the supplementary estimates relates to the fact that the 12th first nation joined and that was the Glooscap First Nation, so this allows the funding they have to be moved out of the First Nations Education Authority, which we had before, into a self-government agreement.
It's not really new funding; it's a transfer from one to another.