Good afternoon, everyone. I call the meeting to order.
Welcome to the 56th meeting of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
We acknowledge that we meet on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of Thursday, June 23, 2022. Members will participate in person or by using the Zoom application. The proceedings will be made available on the House of Commons website. For your information, the webcast will always show the individual speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.
For those participating virtually, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.
You may speak in the official language of your choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting in French, English and Inuktitut. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen of the floor, Inuktitut, English or French. Please select your language now. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately, and we will ensure that interpretation is properly restored before resuming our proceedings.
For members participating in person, proceed as you usually would when the whole committee is meeting in person in a committee room.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. For those in the room, your mike will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer.
Please, direct your remarks to the Chair.
When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.
With regard to a speaking list, the committee clerk and I will do the best we can to maintain a consolidated order of speaking for all members, whether they are participating virtually or in person.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on November 21, 2022, the committee is resuming its study of improving graduation rates of indigenous students.
Today, in our first panel, we welcome from Keewaytinook Internet High School, Nikki Osborne, teacher and graduation coach. From Nunavut Arctic College, we welcome Rebecca Mearns, the president. From Yukon University, we welcome Shelagh Rowles, provost and vice-president academic, who is here by video conference.
Please correct me if I've said any of your names improperly.
We are going to begin with Ms. Mearns.
You'll start us off with five minutes.