Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could I ask the Minister, on what basis can he conclude that this system is working better? What information does he have that tells him first-come, first-served and just allocating a certain amount of money? I'm assuming that there is no uniform policy that is out there for all the school boards in terms of how they determine who's going to get what and for how much. Because the way I see it working, it's like one of those cakewalks, you know? You go round and round until the music stops and then whoever gets the cake gets the cake, but there will be some who don't get it. It won't be necessarily on the needs of students; it will be on whatever money is in the pot and whoever could argue the strongest. We have to be able to come up with a better system of determining exactly what the needs are of our students, whether they be health needs, educational needs, learning needs, behavioural needs, whether they are FASE, FASD, or any number of other cognitive issues, whatever. I think to say that we can't know this and we can't know the scope of this because we don't want to label anyone who is not addressing the full issue, I believe that you're not going to know. I just can't sit here and keep approving money and hope that giving more money and asking them to look at a problem would just somehow deal with the problem. Not problem, but deal with this very important issue or it'll just go away. I need information from the Minister on what basis he believes that what he's doing for special needs situations in the North are working, and how that compares better to other systems that are in play. I think if the Minister is going to have really substantive discussions with the Social Programs committee later this month about this policy, then I need to know that he will have looked into all these questions before we have that sort of...We need to rely on the department to give us the resources to have the debates in. Could I have that information from the Minister, please? Thanks.
Sandy Lee on Committee Motion 21-15(4): Recommendation That Resources Be Pooled Within The Technology Services Centre, Carried
In the Legislative Assembly on February 13th, 2006. See this statement in context.
Committee Motion 21-15(4): Recommendation That Resources Be Pooled Within The Technology Services Centre, Carried
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 13th, 2006
Page 985
See context to find out what was said next.