Thank you for that question, MP Battiste.
Absolutely. In 2007, Saskatchewan implemented mandatory first nations curricula throughout. Premier Wall, at that time, indicated that this was a priority for the Ministry of Education. From that time, I can tell you that there were significant improvements in not only attendance but in every other aspect of students seeing themselves reflected in that curricula. When you're attending school and you're seeing yourself reflected in that, of course you're going to succeed.
The OTC does a tremendous job in terms of resourcing and supporting with best practices teachers across the province, who may not even have a background or the knowledge of how to best approach those things. That's been very important.
The other thing I want to say, from a personal perspective, is that we have two indigenous boys. I'm non-indigenous. My wife is from Saddle Lake Cree Nation. She's sitting in the back there, obviously, and listening to me. With that being said, we have a perspective from seeing our boys at home talk about certain things, like what their grandparents perhaps had gone through and where they come from. Those are all positive things about creating who they are and how they fit into the educational system as a whole.
Absolutely, sir, the resourcing from OTC as well as mandating indigenous curricula are two important steps.