Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to pose a question to the Minister of Education. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Education is well aware of the South Slave Divisional Board of Education being in a fairly significant deficit situation.

To the degree that I commend them for attempting to address their debt and different people in the community for taking different initiatives to address some of this debt, it is my understanding the initial debt was incurred because of the amount of funding that was given to the boards, particularly for retirement funding. It appears that there was a shortfall in that particular area.

However, the in excess of a million dollars deficit is quite significant for the communities in the South Slave to be able to address this particular area without having it be a detriment to many of the programs delivered in the schools.

This ratio of funding is being reconsidered, from one to 19, to one to 21; and, the high school, from a one to 16 ratio, to a one to 19 ratio. So, you're having some areas that could possibly impact program delivery.

I would like to know whether or not the Minister's department is going to make every effort in order to assist the South Slave Divisional Board of Education in addressing the deficit situation they are now in.