In my Member’s statement I was very clear to suggest that this would not be feasible, doable or even desirable if there were not home boarding or residential options available to these students that were sober, supervised, supported and in every way healthy for the children.
The Minister says that parents don’t want their high school students to go to regional centres for the reasons that the Minister stated, and he said that he will speak to the superintendents of education. Could we not perhaps find a way to ask the parents how they feel about that? Because I have run across many parents who feel that their young people do well in the small communities, they get to a certain point, they’re bored, they are feeling like the education system is not challenging them, and they would love an opportunity for their students, for their children to go to a regional centre to go to high school. Is there a way that we could actually canvass the parents to find out if they have an interest in this?