Mr. Speaker, coming from British Columbia, I will take this opportunity to ask my colleague how he feels about the tripartite education framework agreement.
I take the points around the issues of spending on a per student basis but we know moving forward, based on our consultations and our relationships with first nations and the provinces, that part of the success in reconciling this, improving the quality education and the outcome, is based on flexibility within the provinces with first nations and the federal government to get into certain agreements that guarantee comparable standards of education, whether they are on or off reserve, and the flexibility to deal with the reality of students who may transfer to and from a provincial and first nations school.
Does he see this tripartite agreement, by way of example, and others that we formed with the provinces, as an important step, moving forward, with respect to improving the quality and the outcome for first nations children?