Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seconded this motion and I will be supporting it, obviously. I think it is very important, when looking at the various areas, that we could direct funding to in education, we felt that special needs was an area that could affect a large number of other areas of education. We believe that the extra help will relieve some of the stress in the classroom that is experienced by the teachers, perhaps some of the stress experienced by other students who are not receiving the amount of attention that they should be because of special needs students as a demand and a requirement on the teachers. But, mostly, Mr. Speaker, I think that this money needs to be put in here for the sake of the children. We can look at all the other areas in education, but we need to look at the child. We need to look at the child who is in that classroom who has a special need in education who, if they do not have their needs met and they do not have proper diagnosis, a proper work plan, and proper help at this stage of their life, it could affect them for the rest of their life. I will be supporting this motion, and I believe that we do manage, $5 million sounds like a lot of money, but one bad forest fire season can cost us an extra $20 million. Many different areas of spending of this government can quickly accrue to this amount of money, and I believe that it behooves us to find the money to put it to education. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Jane Groenewegen on Motion 21-13(7): Funding For Special Needs Assessment And Programming
In the Legislative Assembly on May 12th, 1999. See this statement in context.
Motion 21-13(7): Funding For Special Needs Assessment And Programming
Item 16: Motions
May 11th, 1999
Page 566
See context to find out what was said next.