Mr. Speaker, the question itself had a number of flaws. In this instance the government asked: Do you support revising term 17 in the manner proposed by the government? That is not a clear question. The intent of the changes should be clearly stated. This simply does not do it and I have a problem with that.
As far as the reference to the quality of education in Newfoundland, the member for Gander-Grand Falls just concluded that in his view the quality of education available in Newfoundland was every bit on par with the quality of education in the rest of the country. I have no reason to question that.
The administrative costs of education are always a problem. I will say that by reducing the number of school boards to 10 large boards in very short order it will be found that it is not going to allow a reduction in the cost of education. The experience elsewhere in the country has been exactly the opposite. These large boards tend to create a need for specialists in various fields and before we know it the school board office has more people sitting in it than the largest school in the district.