Mr. Speaker, the trickle down effect of the finance minister's financial agenda is being felt by students and parents in Hants county in my riding. After making education and the millennium scholarship fund the central issue of this year's budget, the finance minister has cut transfers to Nova Scotia by $25 million.
The students of the Lantz Elementary School in Hants county are feeling the effects of these past cutbacks. Over 220 students are sitting at home today because the carbon monoxide level in their school is seven times higher than the recommended level.
It is all too easy for federal politicians to dismiss such cases as a provincial problem because it is education. It is easy to cut in Ottawa where there is no tangible evidence of the impact of these cuts, but the impact is in Hants county today when those students sit at home because of the callousness of this federal Liberal government and the callousness of the Minister of Finance.
The health of these students today should take precedence over the promise of a scholarship in three years.