Hello, Ms. Weenie.
Thank you very much for joining us today. Besides being the Status of Women critic for the NDP, I'm also the member of Parliament for Churchill, in Manitoba, which is, of course, next door to where you are. A lot of what you just shared about the reality on reserve and the challenges aboriginal young people face, particularly aboriginal girls, certainly resonates with me. That very much could describe exactly the same situation in first nations in Manitoba as well. Thank you for sharing that.
Ms. Weenie, I want to refer to a report that came out a short while ago, actually from the University of Saskatchewan, by Eric Howe. It talked a bit about the kinds of benefits Saskatchewan and Canada would see if we bridged the educational gap between aboriginal people and non-aboriginal people. I believe he noted that the total social benefit, if that were to be done, could accrue to $90 billion, which of course is no small number, by any means.
There is no doubt that the limit on post-secondary funding, perhaps particularly the 2% cap in funding that exists, is a huge obstacle in getting to that point and bridging that gap. I was wondering if you could share with us a bit about where you see the funding, specifically for post-secondary education, that could inspire young girls and all young aboriginal people to take it to the next step. What kinds of supports do we need to see when it comes to funding for post-secondary education?