Mr. Speaker, I have a comment and a question.
The comment is that the hon. member remarked on how education is a matter of provincial jurisdiction. I think he threw some question on the fact of whether some of us should even be debating this given that it is such a matter of provincial jurisdiction.
The proposed amendment is before this place precisely because the Fathers of Confederation originally in section 93 of the BNA and then in term 17 of 1949 decided that while education ought to be a provincial responsibility, this place, this Parliament ought to be the ultimate protector of the minority against the wishes of the majority when it comes to the nature, character and guarantees for denominational education.
My question follows from that. The hon. member also suggested that there are certain minority groups, sectarian groups such as Jews and others, who are left out of the denominational education provisions in the original term 17.
Would the hon. member agree with me and many Newfoundlanders that the best way to repair that inequity is not to collapse the rights for some, but to expand the rights so that they include all? Would the hon. member support an effort to broaden the effect of term 17 so that it would provide the right to access denominational, publicly funded schools for all sectarian minorities and not just those so specified in the original term?