Thank you, Mr. Cleveland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Chairman, could the deputy minister elaborate on some of the concerns that have been raised by the autism society, who wrote a letter and copied it to all Members in terms of the concern by the sampling. I am assuming that at the high school level, there was a miss of certain segments.

Is there a way to offset or accommodate any kind of gaps that may be there as a result of the methodology and the way the survey was done? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, I believe the question the Member is addressing concerned the questionnaire and whether the questionnaire used an earlier practice where it provided a level one, two or three terminology for identifying categories.

The department moved away from categorical funding on disabilities, Mr. Chairman, so that there would not be labels and over-identification of needs when funding is attached.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have another question on special needs, but I would also like to get the Minister to comment, in case I run out of time. I want to put this question in early.

With regard to the College, I have concerns that the heavy equipment program has been seriously undercapitalized over the years and we are running a fleet of equipment that is ancient and very expensive to maintain. I would like the Minister, after he answers my next question, if he would come back to that one. Because it is an issue and I am going to shortly be out of time.

The special needs issue, Mr. Chairman, and the level one, two and three. How you categorize special needs students is very significant. The question I would have is, how do you determine the students who are most in need?

The concern was that if we moved to per capita kind of funding arrangement, that the bigger you are, the more you get, regardless of the special need requirements, may not be the fairest, most equitable way. How do you determine, in each school, in each community, how many special needs students require an aid full time as opposed to just some modest support at the SNA?

That is a fundamental issue. If you define special needs wide enough, everybody has a special need. The thing is to try to bring a frame to it. At the extreme end, how are you going to define that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Cleveland.

Thank you, Mr. Cleveland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to quickly flip over then to my heavy equipment question with the College. There is, I believe, about $136,000 in the budget which is about enough to buy a set of tires for one of those big pieces of heavy equipment. I am very concerned about being able to provide a quality program with equipment that is very old. It costs almost as much to maintain as it would be to arrange some sort of purchase of some new equipment.

They have not had any capital funding for quite a few years and they have only a very modest amount. I would like the Minister's feedback on how he intends to address that issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have asked the College to provide us with an evaluation of both the equipment and the program. This has been looked at in various ways. One way that it was looked at was the possibility of leasing equipment. That became totally unfeasible because the three pieces of equipment came to something like $160,000 for a three month period. So it is of particular concern.

I was down at the College and toured the College several months ago at the opening of the P.W. Kaeser School, and I had an opportunity to talk to the College director and we went through the facility and there is no doubt that this is a concern.

We talked about the possibility of partnering with industry with various organizations that could supply the equipment, allow the training to take place on the equipment.

However, as I say, we have asked the College to look at reviewing this.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. We are on page 9-17, Education and Culture. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in this area, I asked a question earlier on, or the Minister did, about the new funding that the department is getting in this area and it is going to student support services, as well as to teachers wages. I would like to get some information from the Minister as to, whether this funding is targeted.

We know that if we are going to positively impact students, we need to start at the young ages, so is there going to be any guidelines at all attached to this, to say that it should be going first of all to teachers, or teachers in lower grades or anything of that nature? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The PTR, as I mentioned earlier, is a legislative matter. We have set targets to be met each year to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio. On the student needs, I will get Mr. Cleveland to address that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Cleveland.

Thank you, Mr. Cleveland. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this time, I would like to move that we report progress.

There is a motion on the floor. The motion is not debatable. All in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. We will rise and report progress. I would like to thank the Minister and his staff for appearing before the committee.

The House will come back to order. Item 21, report of committee of the whole. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Do we have a seconder? The Chair recognizes the Member for Hay River South. The motion is in order. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. Thank you. Item 22, third reading of bills. Item 23, orders of the day. Mr. Clerk.