Sure, Mr. Bruinooge, I know the committee has been looking at this issue intensely, and if I understand it, you intend to put together some advice for the government in the form of a report. Not to lob it back to you, but one of the first things we like to do is get the committee's input and suggestions on how to move forward.
I've been joined at the table by Christine Cram, who is the associate ADM in the area and who has been following the work of the committee very closely. I know you had some specific follow-up questions that we owe you a response to, and they'll be coming.
I would just say--not to contradict the minister, of course--we are very much focused on K to 12 education and how to move that forward, but that's no suggestion that we're complacent about PSE and that there aren't things to be done. If the committee has some advice on how to move forward, we'll try very hard to implement it and get it through decision-making processes and so on.
You have touched on the most interesting issue, which is the delivery mechanism. How should the assistance that taxpayers are providing get to the students who are academically qualified to attend? It currently flows in a certain way. You can imagine other delivery models such as direct provision of the money to the students. They could apply directly to some entity. It's not easy. There is a pattern entrenched in the way we've been doing it. There would be views from first nations leaders and organizations on how that should be done, on how you could ensure that there would be strong first nations and aboriginal involvement in how such an entity was run. Should it be more regionalized; should it be national? There is a possibility of pooling the resources and flowing them more directly to students in a way that would be more effective and ensure that if a community has to wrestle with very tough financial issues about where to put their resources in a given year, and many communities have to make those difficult choices, the students shouldn't be caught in the middle of that.