Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The problem with all this so-called flexibility is it doesn't look at a base and I think that's where the design of the system starts to fail. I mean the flexibility is where, I think, it needs to be, which is the school. The superintendents and the school boards can all say what they feel is appropriate to teach their kids the minimums as described by our Education Act. However, the fact is, what I believe, and I think a number of people believe, is the fact that schools need to start off with what's considered a minimum. As I described it, they'll obviously need a teacher of some sort, they will need a principal, they will need administration staff, they will need custodial staff. Those are the types of minimums that need to affect every school out there, whether they're in Yellowknife, Hay River, Tuktoyaktuk, Whati, wherever. My concern is we're putting choices on schools that should be using that money to deliver education programs and we're forcing them to make bread and butter decisions about well, my goodness, there's gum on the wall and we better worry about the health inspector as opposed to trying to find a way to get kids in a better social environment and making sure that they're there to learn. We have prescribed money such as inclusive money and I'd like to see us find ways to uncuff the school boards and make sure that all our funding is delivered in the most flexible manner that we enable schools to deliver programs to do the best.

I know the Minister will have a clear cut reply to all of what I've said, but the fact is that until we work to minimums, I think we are hiding behind the formula and saying, well, the formula will never be perfect but at the end of the day, well, that's the best we have to work with. If we want to provide a great learning environment, we will always ensure that each school has the potential of having a phys. ed. teacher, a librarian, et cetera, et cetera. I mean we don't have to go into, the Minister knows the details, but we need to move to that type of direction because if schools don't have the minimums, then we're now forcing them to make choices again. Like you said, a school had to make some type of sacrifice in order to come up with a social worker in their school. Well, shame on the fact that they had to make a choice in the first place. Congratulations to them that they made the right choice.

Mr. Chair, those are the types of things that I'm trying to lean into.