Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In regard to the needs of students, I am going to give you the provincial perspective of what we know or what we've identified as the kids needing to know. Perhaps, then, it's up to the federal government and of course representatives to make their decisions based off of that. I

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In terms of teacher education programs, they are very innovative in Saskatchewan. The Dene TEP, CTEP and indigenous teacher education program all utilize language and cultural-based resources, so that's a tremendous point. We're hoping that continues to grow. Much of their materi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In terms of improving the graduation rates off reserve, again, in Saskatchewan, it's trending a little bit differently. Is it still high enough? Absolutely not, so we as a province are still trying to figure out what the “best” best practices are. In terms of investments, investm

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In terms of two aspects of the question, first, in terms of language, absolutely, students need to have that opportunity to learn in their respective languages and to have materials that are reflective of them. We've been working with first nations education authorities as well

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that question. In terms of remoteness, it creates significant challenges in many ways. One, of course, is being able to provide those educational opportunities that otherwise are attainable in urban centres. Second to that, of course, is connectivity and ensuring t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that. In terms of collaboration, obviously I'm here to talk about the innovative and great things the Province of Saskatchewan is doing, but that's not to say there isn't more to be done. The only way to do more for kids across Canada—indigenous kids across Cana

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  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 sign

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. We learn to read, and then we read to learn. Those are important aspects I think everyone in this room is familiar with. Literacy and literacy knowledge is absolutely critical in the formation of any student to do well in any aspect of education. We believe that strat

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that. I do want to say that I stepped down after my second term. I did not run again, so I wasn't beat. That's always a good thing as a politician, for everyone in this room. That being said, in the teacher recruitment and retention piece, there are some innovati

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation and congratulations, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here in the nation's capital on the unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation to discuss topics that are very important to me. I come to you from La Ronge, Sask