Thank you.
I want to start with college education, because that fits so much in terms of the scheme of building a more competitive and productive society. You have identified the key obstacle to doing that, which is lack of a workforce trained and qualified to deal with the needs of tomorrow's economy.
I would think, though I don't want to put words in your mouth, that you would probably be looking for more than simple recognition from this government. After all these years, you must be looking for a direct transfer of funds for college education. I know the waiting lists are astronomical. They are in Winnipeg. We have youth who are interested, but we can't keep up with the demand. What we've had instead is cutbacks from the Liberals and now platitudes from the Conservatives. We just yesterday got confirmation that the whole surplus of $13.2 billion has gone against the debt. Now, nobody is opposed to paying down the debt, but at the expense of what?
Wouldn't a couple of billion dollars of that have helped meet the needs you're talking about? Further, how do you square the government's platitude with its cutbacks yesterday of $17 million out of literacy, money out of youth employment, money out of skills development, and so on?