Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think we need to give credit to the Beaufort Delta Divisional Education Council for their reaction to our fiscal pressures. The council has, over the past couple of years, chosen to reinvest a surplus it had into keeping the pupil/teacher ratio lower in that region than has been possible in other regions. The Member is talking about a situation that other communities had run into a few years ago and is now becoming more apparent in the Beaufort Delta because the surplus is being used up and they are quickly approaching the same pupil/teacher ratio as in other regions.

The reason for the change in funding was because these were the targets that we were given. We do not have the ability to provide more funding to education councils. I agree, the system is under stress. I wish I could say that I had funding available to provide to solve the problem, but I do not. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.