Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the Legislative Assembly to congratulate the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the Yukon College on signing their memorandum of understanding for the teaching and working farm in Dawson.

This memorandum of understanding builds on already great partnerships that we have seen with the Yukon College and the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, which is producing great results like the one that we saw this spring with the graduates of the first class of the mobile trades training trailer program.

I would also like to acknowledge outgoing Chief Eddie Taylor and his team for their work and also executive director Jackie Olson. Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in stands as a standard bearer of what we can achieve in the Yukon when we let our educational institutions work with many partners toward those paths of traditional knowledge. This project will help preserve and maintain indigenous plants and shrubs important to Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in healing traditions, as well as preserving a way of life that is based upon an economic and a spiritual relationship with the land, providing an on-the-land working environment for Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizens as well as developing a secure source of fresh produce for Dawson — things that we can all be proud of, Mr. Speaker.

Yukon College is leading the way in working with Yukon’s First Nations to showcase what we can achieve in the Yukon when our education system is evolved to meet the needs of its students. Dr. Karen Barnes and her team at the college have worked very hard over the last number of years to build a unique and northern educational experience for northern residents. The new research opportunities at the teaching and working farm can only help further our understanding of our unique climate and landscape.

This is a great opportunity for all of Yukon, and I wish both partners the best of luck as they move the project into the next stages of development.