Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to focus on a serious issue that seems to be rising in our schools. It is truancy. Mr. Speaker, it takes a whole community to raise children. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to participate. Schools can only do so much. Some parents seem to leave it up to the child or teenager to take their education in their own hands. Tardiness and lack of attendance affect our children and their ability to stay focussed at school and eventually some students drop out unless there is some form of intervention.

I have spoken with staff at various schools, and the problem seems to be that the school itself is truly powerless. They don’t seem to have any status or authority, if you may, to get involved and deal with the situation immediately when it arises. Even if they had the authority to get involved, they do not have the resources to do anything about this. Mr. Speaker, there is an Education Act that does allow for parents to be charged up to $500 but, as of yet, I have not heard of any parent ever being charged under this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, as soon as truancy is identified, the schools should have the authority to step in and take control before it is too late and another child is lost to the drop-out list. Mr. Speaker, these children will simply fall through the cracks and drop out which is not in the best interest of these individuals, society and definitely not in the best interest of this darn government.

Mr. Speaker, we will have an alarming number of children dropping out. Even this year, graduation rates are slowly climbing but they are still very, very low. Truancy is a serious issue. In closing, Mr. Speaker, I wish to say two important things. Truancy is a symptom and there could be a thousand reasons as to why, but we owe it to ourselves in our roles here to ask why.

Secondly, Mr. Speaker, and finally, I should say as well, under the Child and Family Services Act, we talk about physical harm, abuse and neglect; we should certainly have a section here to deal with truancies and allow our Health and Social Services system to get out there and to ask why. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause