Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about a number of things related to education in Hay River. During the last session I raised concerns about the situation of Diamond Jenness Secondary School and how the deficiencies were impacting on a quality environment for the delivery of education at the high school. I am very pleased to report that Minister McLeod, with Public Works and Services, and Minister Lafferty, with Education, Culture and Employment, came to Hay River last week with Mr. Speaker and myself, and their officials. We did tour the Diamond Jenness Secondary School, among other facilities. But that one in particular I want to talk about.
A revised, summarized and updated technical review has been completed, and it appears that work to address the condition of the high school has been put in motion. I thank the Ministers for their attention to this matter, and I look forward to the timely delivery of the work that needs to be undertaken.
In view of the recent indication that our government is looking to reduce expenditures, our local education authority, through participation in the district education council, has begun to position itself to respond to targets for reduction that may be forthcoming in the future. I do have a problem with that, Mr. Speaker. We do need program review in education, but it should be to the end of enhancing our investment in education, not reducing it.
We talk about early intervention and investment at the front end, which will save us money down the road. We are just starting to see some of the rewards of some of those investments right now. It’s not time to start randomly or recklessly introducing cutting initiatives to satisfy across-the-board–style reduction targets. I know that is not the intent of this government. It appears there may be a disconnect between what Members envision in supporting strategic reductions in areas of low impact in government waste, and the message that was received by departments, boards and agencies.
I won’t be supporting turning our backs on commitments to such things as reducing the pupil-teacher ratio and improving literacy, just to name a couple. We need, in fact, to look further for enhancements to our education system that would see adequate funding for special needs students in our schools and greater options for learning streams in our high schools. Again, that is just to name a couple.
In education the needs are great and the priority must stay high. Any reductions in funding to education at this time could prove to be detrimental to a system that’s already under considerable pressure.
