Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Certainly I don't disagree with the Member that we don't talk enough about our successes and our failures. I think that that is a good point that the Member is making. It does require us to take our data and to put it into a better format, because it needs to be in an understandable format as well for the public. I don't disagree with the Member on that. We can certainly do our best in order to concentrate on getting the type of information that the Member is pointing out, because it is important for the Members to have details to make decisions. I need those details in order to make decisions. There's always a challenge, Mr. Chair, because as the Member has referenced, when we do FAS/FAE, that is not a simple diagnosis. That's an expensive diagnosis. A medical doctor has to do that. These are the kinds of hurdles we seem to face on an ongoing basis when we compile data. We have to be accurate with the data, too, Mr. Chair. We can't just estimate, as we've done some time ago where we had a large percentage of FAS/FAE students in our schools. That percentage couldn't be substantiated because testing hadn't been done. In order to achieve the testing, which we're doing now, Health and Social Services is working on that for early childhood areas. These are all things we need to take into account when we do accountability reports. But I don't disagree with the Member that in order for him, as well as the other Members, to make decisions, to have input, they need data. They need information that they can count on. Thank you.
Jake Ootes on General Comments
In the Legislative Assembly on February 25th, 2003. See this statement in context.
General Comments
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 24th, 2003
Page 325
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