Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his kind comments. Actually, I should be worried if I say things that please members on the other side. Maybe I have not done a good job.
With respect to the question of vouchers, I think it would be better for us to take the federal government money that is now allocated for post-secondary education, allocate it entirely through the voucher system and allow the universities to build a tuition system that reflects to a fair degree the cost of educating a student in the program.
The provinces would individually be required to provide the funding for the facilities and for any special developments there since it is a provincial requirement. This way the students would be the ones who would produce a level of good, healthy academic competition between various institutions. They would then have to attract students because of their good record and good quality control program. Their graduates would be able to get the top notch jobs. Through that natural competitiveness those institutions would I think develop a better level of research and a better level of teaching.
The provinces could go ahead and use their money as they are now in their component in the provinces. The voucher system would help to give students a great deal more flexibility in the choice of which institution they attend because of the fact that very often there are universities which specialize in their area.
For example today I was talking to a person who happens to be a member of the chiropractic profession. There are no programs for that particular discipline in all universities. But there are
those that could provide that service and that student would not have to face a great economic disadvantage because it may be out of province.
Those are just some of my comments on that.