Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand how emotionally attached people are to a school in their neighbourhood, but it isn't something that's new in North America, that schools that are underused get shut down. If you go to, for instance, the Edmonton Public School's website, you'll find that they have, right now, three schools proposed for closure on the website. As part of the presentation, they talk about how that money that is being spent on a principal, an extra janitor, extra administrative staff in the office is now going to be moved into a classroom in an adjacent school. They talk about how that's going to improve what goes into the education of the students.

They also talk about how schools have been sold, leased, have been used by the City of Edmonton, have been used for all sorts of different things. Some have been sold to church groups for use as schools. Others are being used by other non-government organizations and they are collecting leases. So this isn't something that's new. If you have a situation where everybody says we have all of this space, we aren't prepared to even consider consolidating when we don't need all of that space, then you are in a

situation where you are bound to have a bunch of money wasted.