Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to direct my comments to the subject of education in light of our overall budget deliberations. I submit that rising to the legal and moral obligation to provide a quality education to northern students is something which impacts every other goal and challenge that this government faces. A quality education is essential to the hope which we hold for every northerner that they have the opportunity to achieve an independent, healthy, productive life. If we cannot adequately educate our children, we cannot reasonably expect them to reach their potential, access jobs, or fully contribute to society.
This government pays lip service to education as a high priority of our agenda. To what lengths as a government are we prepared to go to back up this claim?
Recently the Department of Education, Culture and Employment undertook a Minister's Forum on Education. This process articulated the positive and the deficient aspects of our current education system. Although I agree that it is important to clearly identify the needs, I do not think that the results of this forum came as a surprise to anyone. The system needs more money. If this document is not now used as a basis for implementing a response to these needs, we might as well have spent the money on something else.
It is not realistic to put the identifying of solutions onto the public. Neither is it realistic to put the identification of additional resources solely on the shoulders of the new Minister. If indeed education is a priority of this government, it is going to require the commitment, effort and determination of each Member of this House, on the government side and on this side of the House.
Mr. Miltenberger has stated on a number of occasions that 31 of the report's recommendations are non-monetary. I simply do not buy that. We commission surveys, reports, strategies, forums, reviews by departments all the time. Perhaps we do this too often and at too great an expense. If these initiatives cost money, what makes us think that we can implement the recommendations of the education report at no cost. There is no way of sugar-coating or dancing around the fact that education requires more financial resources. When we balanced the budget, we accepted the argument that we had no choice. To allow the deficit to accumulate would erode our children's future. The same is true of our education system. If we allow the lack of resources to persist, the accumulated effect will never be addressed. When the opportunity to provide learning as a foundation in the formative years is lost, the effects can be life long. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.