Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Personally, I think the leadership program that has been going on in Fort Smith for a number of years now is a good program. We need something like that to try to get the students who are interested in achieving high standards involved. The communities are also striving for that. I think this type of leadership program is good and it is available right now. I know that last year we talked about it and the year before that. There seems to be a move by the department to try to eliminate the program.
Personally, I think this government and the Legislative Assembly, should commit ourselves to a long-term commitment to that program. I understand it is very successful. There are more positive than negative things with it. I'm told that there is a possibility that the federal government might donate about $30,000 to $35,000 to the program. As well, there is a foundation that might donate a substantial amount of money to sponsor this program as well. With outside money coming in, I think this department and this government should commit itself to a long-term plan to support this program rather than doing away with it.
I know some students who are in the program and they really enjoy it. They get a lot out of it and there are other students who want to be in it. However, at the present time, no new students are being taken in. Only the students who are already in the program will be there until they are finished their schooling and then this program seems to be winding down. It seems to be a very successful program and we should support success like that. We are striving for excellence and we passed a motion on that in the House. This is one way of showing that we support excellence.
I would just like to ask the Minister, there was a review done recently, last year perhaps, and I would like the review to be made available to Members of this Legislative Assembly so that we can see for ourselves how the program has done and make a decision based on that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.