Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the bottom line is that we need more money in education. Now we can sit here and quibble about whether we said it in the recommendation or in the report of the committee or whether we did not, it does not matter. I mean, there were a lot of factors that affected what went into that committee report. Number one we had division, so there was a totally different kind of reporting mechanism, two Members of the committee were brand new. I was new on there and even if we did not recommend it, what we are telling you now is that we have heard much more from the people in our constituencies since then and people have put a lot of effort behind their words and they are saying that we need more money for education. So, let us not point fingers any more at who should have put what into a report or who should have done whatever. We are not pointing a finger at the Minister, but we are seeing that as a group of legislators and politicians and caretakers of the budget of the Government of the Northwest Territories, we do have responsibility for what we designate as priorities and what we deliver that money to. Whatever has been said or done in the past, the bottom line is that we need more money for education and surely the government, the Cabinet, in conjunction with the Minister, can take a look at that.
Now, you have asked us, where do you want to take it from, where do we find the money? Well, we have been suggesting various things in the House here about where this government could find the money and there is not a person out there in the public in this western Arctic that does not know that there are areas still, even though we have gone through budget cuts and everything else, there is money. If the budget is a shopping trip, for years we have been pushing that cart around and we have been buying certain things and now the reality is we have to come back to the basics. Maybe there were luxuries in the past when Ottawa gave us more money. That is what we had then, this is what we have now and still within the framework of what we have now, I believe that there is more money that can be found for education. As I have pointed out in the House and I will say it again, amazingly there is a picture painted that somehow the Ordinary Members micro-manage the expenditures of departments and we do not and yet we sit here in amazement when initiatives are announced.
I just opened the News North the other day and read where the three apartment buildings here in Yellowknife went into receivership out of Mr. Pocklington's estate, someone from down south bought them and now they are going to condominiumize them and tell all of the tenants, come and get your $10,000 down payment. I do not know what kind of economy that creates, I do not know what it does, but I am just saying that there seems like there is no cap and there is limitless money for other things. Does anybody agree with me? I mean that is over $4 million. Is there any cap on that program? I mean you get some Realtors or developers from down south who are going to come here and flip those apartment buildings and make a fortune. I know it sounds a little off the subject but that is millions of dollars we are talking about, millions of dollars and we are asking for a few million dollars for our special needs in our schools because we see that as a really important area.
One more time for the Minister, I want to take the opportunity try and simply paint the picture as it is and I am not saying that he is not perceiving this, he is not understanding this, so I want to do it one more time. If the Minister will do this for me, I would like him to imagine a classroom with 25 elementary school students in that classroom. I would like him to consider widely varying levels of achievement because of our policy of social passing. I would like him to then add to that mix the fact that 40 percent of those students are sitting there with some form of possibly undiagnosed special need. Then I would like him to add a couple of children with a profound challenge because we have an inclusive schooling policy and therefore we do not want to segregate children with special needs of a profound nature, so add them into the class. Then add to the mix one teacher. Take away from the class any support in terms of classroom assistants or special needs assistants in that classroom because we do not have the money for it. Take away from that teacher who is a person and has to live, take away from them affordable housing, take away their VTA so they cannot get away for a holiday. Cut the pay when other jurisdictions are launching comprehensive recruiting programs and different working conditions than what we have to offer here. We do not have, like the Yukon, the majority of our communities on a highway system. There are different working conditions here in the North. Now add to that mix new curriculum every couple of years and, Mr. Chairman, tell me what all of that adds up to.
If that does not add up to, if it is not a crisis right now, I think people with foresight can see that that is what is looming. That is what lays ahead and if we cannot as a government at least educate our children then I wonder, seriously, what we are doing here. When Mr. Miltenberger was asked in the House last week if he thought education was in a crisis, Mr. Miltenberger said "No, I do not", and perhaps things are not as bad now as what we foresee they are going to be in the future, but I believe the problems if they are not addressed are going to be compounded and I do not believe things are getting better. I think we are going to continue having a younger population here in the Western Territory and we are going to have increased, not decreased, but increased demand on education and educators.
We need to be proactive and look at this now and try and do what we can for the children that are even in the system now who have special needs, who have challenges in receiving their education. I mean our social challenges in our society here in the North affect our ability to educate our children but at the same time if we do not educate our children it is a catch 22. It is a vicious circle. That affects our social challenges and it just becomes a never-ending problem. So I agree with the Minister, we do have some things to be very pleased about and there are some accomplishments, there are some things to be proud of in our education system and we do not want to diminish that but we have a large problem and it needs to be faced, and it needs to be addressed with funding. More money. That is all I have to say, Mr. Chairman.