Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm thrilled to be meeting you from the ancestral land of our indigenous people in Newfoundland and Labrador.
This is a subject that is close to my heart, both as president of Memorial University and also, more importantly, as a girl who grew up in a small rural town in Labrador. I'll tell you a bit about that childhood, because it is so relevant to today's discussion.
I was raised in Labrador, but my grandmother grew up on Cape Breton Island, raised by her grandmother. She was forced to leave school in grade 4 to take care of her family. She became a housekeeper at age nine in rural Cape Breton. It was the worst day of her life. She knew education was a path to a different life for her, and it was not possible. At 16, she married my grandfather, and immediately had my mother and three additional children.
My mother did finish high school, but she also worked as a housekeeper all through high school. She always wanted to be a teacher, but she was unable to afford to go to university. She didn't want that for us, so all six of us were the first in our family to get an opportunity to go to university.
I had a great childhood, growing up in the sixties and seventies in a small town. It was a wonderful experience, but when it came to post-secondary education, it was definitely a challenge.
I went back to my home town this summer. A lot of things were the same, but a lot were different. I learned a lot about education in rural Newfoundland and Labrador when I took this trip throughout the province this summer. I saw and met many students who were forced to move home when we had to close our campuses due to the pandemic. I did learn that students are resilient, but I also learned the importance of a reliable Internet. Without it, there's no access to education for so many people in our province.
A father in a small town on the great northern peninsula sent his three children 470 kilometres to Corner Brook so that they could have reliable Internet to access their post-secondary studies. I heard of students downloading course requirements after midnight every night because they couldn't get access otherwise. Memorial has 13 locations, including six campuses, but our students do not have equal access to education. It is a real challenge.
I also saw the challenge women face. Many of our female students were in the retail business and the service industry. That's how they earn money to go to university. The pandemic has been a real challenge for them. With so many jobs lost in the service and retail industries, they have been really struggling.
I saw lots of unemployment and a sense of despair. In those communities, I saw myself in many of the young women I met. I never imagined I would be a university president. I'm a product of the Canadian dream, and I want the same for our young women today.
It's important to provide role models for them. We stand on the shoulders of the women who came before us. As the first female president of Memorial, I want to make sure that the first is not the end. I want a young girl from Labrador to see a future in this beautiful province, in this beautiful country. We have to do all that we can to ensure that she does.
As Senator Murray Sinclair said, “Education has gotten us into this mess and education will get us out.” I met many first nations young women who have additional challenges in access. The things we can do and need to do are to provide reliable Internet access, make sure education is affordable and accessible, make sure we have child care options for our young women, build solutions with communities for communities, be role models, listen, learn, and work with the women in this country.
Thank you, Madam Chair.