I'm aware of one case in particular concerning support for cultural development, entertainment and so on in the schools. From the public's standpoint, the average person has to bring in and pay artists. Ms. Thorne talked about that: there are challenges that must be met. But I can talk about the operation within the schools, because I was on the province's Acadia School Board until 1988. I took early retirement. At that time, we were working to create a federal student cultural development support program. We brought in artists from the outside, but the costs became increasingly exorbitant. We wanted to find support to do this more with artists and crafts people from the community, who were working with the students. Eight years later, after filing a lot of applications, a program will be starting soon. We're talking about foot-dragging, aren't we? This came from the community, which will be working with the students. We can't afford to bring in well-known artists. So we have to work in the other direction, with them, but with programs integrated into the schools.
On November 7th, 2006. See this statement in context.