Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that, at the outset, I am fully in support of this motion and I am very pleased that my colleagues have brought this motion forward. I feel that there was an error when this particular program was removed from the budget

and I think we need to correct that error, and this motion will do that.

One of the things that I think that needs to be noted is that the purpose of the scholarships is very different from the purpose of the grants and loans which are available through the department of student financial assistance, through ECE. The purpose of these scholarships is they are awarded on merit. These are not scholarships which are available to every student. They are only available to those students who attain the marks and actually earn them.

I think it’s important to also note that merit-based scholarships are not readily available throughout for all kinds of students. I think most students would agree that merit-based scholarships for somebody pursuing an arts or a science degree is unlikely…There aren’t very many. Students are unlikely to find them, whereas here are specifically targeted scholarships which are quite readily available. I think that it needs to be noticed that the student financial assistance scholarships are the only part of student financial assistance which is based on merit.

I think also that there was an error when we erred in taking this item out of the budget, we erred in terms of not providing notice to students. Yes, they were given notice but they were given notice at the end of the fiscal year, in March. They were preparing for exams in April and they had very little opportunity to readjust their financing to consider what they were going to do come school year to start again in the fall.

I think there is an opportunity for us to reinstate at somewhat of a reduced level for this fiscal year, 2009-10, and then a gradual reduction over following years, as has been suggested by the motion so that eventually we return to probably the levels of scholarships that were awarded in and around 2001. Those were amounts that were much less than what the current amounts are. I think there is value, as the motion says, in having scholarships, which basically is a recognition of the achievement of the students but they’re not a large cash award. I think that goes to Mr. Hawkins’ comment about a return of service. A small cash award doesn’t really require a return of service. Some of the large awards that we currently did give probably did require a return of service.

So I think we certainly need to look at a redesign of the Scholarship Program and that is also something that is called for in the motion. I think there needs to be a look at the amounts that are awarded, look at how the amounts are awarded, what level of marks are required for various levels and I think bottom line, we need to reinstate at least 50 percent of the scholarship funding that was eliminated from last year’s or this current year’s budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.