Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is indeed good to be back here and I also would like to welcome the new Member for Monfwi. It’s a real pleasure to have him, and I look forward to working with him in years to come.

Mr. Speaker, in the last six years that I’ve been here I’m very proud of the little part that I played in increasing the funding for our schools in general, especially in special needs funding. We tout the fact that we have reduced the PTR from 18 to one to 16 to one. We repeatedly talk about the fact that we increased the special needs funding from eight percent of the total school budget to 15 percent, and I know the Minister is working towards more. We could say this is a 100 percent increase in special needs funding over six years and we’re talking about $10 million extra money. We could sit back as we do and congratulate ourselves and pat ourselves on the back, but I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, none of this really seems to be making any difference in our schools.

As I think about this, I look around this room, Mr. Speaker, and I count at least 10 MLAs who need glasses. We would never think of telling this group of people because we don’t have enough money only 15 percent of you will wear glasses. I’m telling you, this is what we’re doing with special needs funding. We say we are going from eight percent to 15 percent, we’re increasing the funding by 100 percent, you should all be happy with that, and in the meantime there are so many kids in our school system who are going without special needs assistance and resources. The situation is not getting any better.

Hear! Hear!

Sandy Lee

Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that there are a lot of problems that we deal with in this hall that are not just about money. As we speak, I don’t believe the Minister and the Department of ECE knows exactly how the priorities are set. They have no idea what the real needs are for special needs students in our schools and our board in our areas. They’re just saying, okay, we’ll just give you a part of school funding and you do with it what you can. I’m telling you, as I walk through the halls of Range Lake North School, in the six years, even if the budget went up by 100 percent, there is more need, and the situation is not getting any better; and I have to ask the Minister and this government to do a better job in designing and analyzing special needs funding to say what is it exactly that the needs are and what do we have to meet them so that 100 percent of the kids with special needs get funding, not just 15 percent or 10 percent or whatever arbitrary number we come up with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Hear! Hear!

---Applause