Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few more questions on the special needs question. I would like to, first of all, ask the Minister to meet with the Social Programs committee on the new directive for special needs, because I think there is a lot of interest among the Members here about what he plans to do to tighten up that program further.
Another thing that I want to say about this is, I think we should take our time to revisit our special needs policy, special needs inclusive schooling here, because we have it as a stated policy that all students are supposed to be in the mainstream and they should get the help they need to be able to do their schooling mainstream. I know that we may sit back and think that we're doing a good job, we're increasing our funding to special needs, we're doing more and more and more, but, like I stated before, I have no idea of knowing whether I'm meeting the needs of those students with special needs or not.
On the ground, the Minister has acknowledged that some of the funding that was meant to be allocated for special needs might not have gone all to special needs and such, and he's hoping to address that with the directive. But that's just one issue in relation to this program. I think to me, it seems it's carried out too much like a first-come, first-served basis and it's like we almost don't want to know what the needs are. It's like you have a pot of a hundred bucks and whoever needs special needs, they all have to come and they're going to get as much help as what that money would support, and that's not the way...I mean, I understand why we have to do it this way, but I'd like to see us try to change that because I don't think we do it that way for health care. If somebody has cancer and needs cancer treatment, I guess we have a universal Health Care Program and so anybody who needs treatment like that will get treated. But in the schools we have, I think there should be a standard and some kind of criteria where the students who have such severe needs that they are not able to move ahead unless they have one-on-one help or more intensive help, that they should be covered. We should have basic items; whether it's autism or cystic fibrosis, I don't know. I don't know if we could start naming conditions where students with special needs...I don't know why I mentioned cystic fibrosis. But some learning difficulties. You know?
I don't know if there are any other jurisdictions that do it this way. I think that, you know, there are, whether it's FAS needs or I don't know. We, I think, need to, we're not going to be able to make headway into dealing with our students with severe needs and helping them get incorporated into the main learning environment if we continue to say we don't really know what their needs are. I don't think we do. I mean, if the Minister knows, maybe he could tell me.
But we're just going to be giving 10 percent or 15 percent of the main pot and hope that will deal with that. I don't think that's going to get us any further ahead and I don't think there's anything more important in terms of dealing with the needs of our population and getting them ready for the 21st Century and getting them ready for the high-tech jobs that are coming forward or any of the economic opportunities if we do not jump in there and really look at our kids to say and be able to say, okay, what are the needs here and we are going to cover the top. We have to do it by need, not by, well, we can only do it by dollars. I'd like to know if the Minister will be willing to look at something like that in the way he sends out his directive. Thank you.