Thank you to all of you for your presentations. They were very informative.
You have raised several points which are obvious to us. For example, we have been asking for a long time that the security tax be abolished, as well as a number of other things.
I wish to ask a question to the representative of the Canadian School Boards Association. First, I quite agree with you that it is illogical to ask a public educational institution to pay GST when these are taxpayers' provincial taxes which are transferred to the federal government which does not give back enough of them to the provinces. I think that you are absolutely right in that respect. We should stop charging them the goods and services tax, as we have done for municipalities.
With regard to the second point, dealing with immigrant and refugee children, you say:
CSBA brings this forward as a continuing priority and renews its call for stronger federal recognition of the role of communities and particularly school boards in the settlement and integration of immigrant and refugee children and their families.
I do agree on the principle, however I should like to know what this means in concrete terms. As you know, Quebec and the federal government have their own jurisdiction which we want to see respected when it comes to immigration. That said, the federal government of course has a responsibility in particular when it comes to refugees. I would like you to be a little more specific.
What do you want to say when you ask the federal government to recognize the role of school boards in the integration of newcomers, whether they be refugees or immigrants?