Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, am pleased to have the opportunity to rise today in response to the speech delivered by His Honour the Lieutenant Governor. The Lieutenant Governor showed considerable emotion in starting his speech and noted that it was his fifth. I can only say in starting a response that we have been well served by this particular Lieutenant Governor and that he has done well for both the institution and office and for the people of Alberta.

One year ago today was Alberta's 27th general election. I was honoured and privileged to be returned to this Assembly for a fourth term by the constituents of Edmonton-Whitemud. It remains a privilege for me to continue to serve those constituents and all the citizens of Alberta as a member of our Premier's government.

Anniversaries are always an opportune time to reflect, and the past year has certainly provided ample food for thought. The past six months have been particularly difficult for many Albertans as events in the global energy and banking sectors have brought unexpected uncertainty into our homes and businesses. While today we are concerned about how the economy will impact our families and our neighbours, we must continue to look to the future with the certainty of better times ahead. Now more than ever is the time for faith and foresight as we form that future.

A great challenge for Alberta is to ensure that our future is economically and environmentally sustainable. There is no better way to succeed in tackling this challenge than to invest our resource-based wealth into our people so that we become a key part of the global knowledge economy.

A knowledge economy depends not just on the creativity of people but on the facilities, the institutions, the universities and colleges, where knowledge is developed.

In recent years Edmonton has become a world-renowned centre for nanotechnology, energy and natural resources technology, diabetes, cardiology, cancer prevention and treatment, and ambulatory care. Of course, many other parts of Alberta are renowned for what they deliver to the research agenda and the knowledge agenda. The cutting-edge research conducted at our universities, our community facilities, our businesses is garnering international acclaim while generating economic spinoffs and reducing our environmental impact while improving the daily lives of Albertans.

Of course, continuing to build an economy based on knowledge will not be easy. We can and must build on our successes - the best schools, world-class universities, a province-wide fibre-optic network, unique endowment funds, and state-of-the-art facilities for medical, science, and engineering research - to ensure that every Albertan has the opportunity to succeed to the best of his or her abilities. Alberta has a strong record on which to build a better future, but there's more work to do.

In all of this there is one crucial foundation: our basic education system. Leading in learning is central to a successful society. This means making certain that our educational opportunities are second to none, that every child can find his or her passion and grow up to be a caring, contributing, confident member of society. When all Albertans strive together in a shared desire for our children to succeed, we will ensure that our province reaps the benefits of maximizing its human potential.

The timeless promise of education everywhere is to nurture and stimulate, to enrich and fulfill the innate potential in every human being, and that is why we strive to ensure that every child looks on the world with wonder, is fascinated by constant surprises, and is challenged and uplifted by the search for truth in all things. That's why our schools must be places of delight and dedication, diversity and depth; places of dignity and vitality in which we can gather and celebrate, aspire and achieve.

Yet education is not solely about what happens in schools. It infuses and informs the whole of life. It is about preparing each student for life as a citizen, teaching them to appreciate their entitlements, capitalize on their opportunities, and fulfill their responsibilities. Instilling hope, respect, dignity, and humility in our young people is thus a task that cannot be undertaken solely by educators. The entire community must actively contribute.

Mr. Speaker, education exists not just for the child but for the community. Every Albertan has a stake in what happens in our schools today. Years from now the toddler you passed on the street today may be the nurse caring for you in a hospital; the youngster ahead of you in line at a grocery store may be the police officer keeping your community safe; and the teenager who helps you with your computer may employ you at the next big Alberta company. Education does not become any less important when our children and our grandchildren graduate from school. It is a never-ending and noble task for only through education do we bolster the shared bonds of community and citizenship.

Our province is unique because of the content of our characters and the sense of purpose of our souls. It is therefore imperative that our children learn to honour our heritage and dedicate themselves to the future. Only in an education system that is open to all Albertans regardless of gender, race, religion, class, or geography can our students come to appreciate the value of diversity and to learn to make judgments about things that truly matter.

People come to Alberta from all over the world because of the opportunities that are available here, especially in our schools. That is why it's essential that every person has the opportunity they need to learn, adapt, and develop new knowledge and new skills, and it makes it absolutely critical that those learning opportunities are high quality, accessible, affordable, and sustainable for all Albertans.

Mr. Speaker, the Lieutenant Governor said, "The freedom to create our own future and achieve our dreams so often rests on our enthusiasm for education." To this end we've undertaken a project called Inspiring Education: A Dialogue with Albertans, ably chaired by the Member for Athabasca-Redwater and an Edmonton schoolteacher, Brent McDonough, a former U of A senator.

We undertake this effort not because there is anything wrong with our schools. Indeed, education is one of those things of which Albertans can be rightfully proud. People come to Alberta from all over the world to see our school infrastructure and to observe how our children learn. International tests often place Alberta as one of the top five education systems in the world. Clearly, the hard work of students, teachers, parents, administrators in our school communities are deserving of celebration.

However, new times demand new approaches, and the time has come to establish what educational excellence looks like in the next part of the 21st century.

Inspiring Education is both a process and a product, an invigoration of learning in our province and a legacy to leave to the next generation. We seek to renew public appreciation for the value and importance of education in Albertans' lives and to build understanding of how education is increasingly the basis of a prosperous society and economy. We must develop a broadly accepted and clear understanding of what it will mean to be an educated Albertan 20 years from now, and we must look beyond our immediate needs and interests to develop a policy framework which describes the overall direction, principles, and long-term goals for education in Alberta over the next two decades.

Mr. Speaker, by reaching out to Albertans to explore their hopes, dreams, and aspirations for their children, we will ensure that education enables every one of our citizens to face the future with confidence. We will know that we have succeeded when our children are inspired to be imaginative, inventive, inquiring, inclusive, informed, independent, and industrious.

With education, Albertans will continue to have the freedom to create and the spirit to achieve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.