Dr. Swann: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government seems content to leave wasteful spending on everything from executive bonuses and slick public advertising untouched. Instead, again they turn to health care and education as the first targets for cuts. My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier make a firm and unshakeable commitment to Albertans and to future teachers who were demonstrating on the steps today that he will protect public education from short-sighted cutbacks?

Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, with respect to the bonuses that the member has referred to, those have been eliminated. That will provide a saving this year of something around $44 million.

With respect to the secondary and postsecondary, in terms of secondary, K to 12, the minister has met with the individuals that were here to talk about some of what they think was the correct information in terms of how the minister is proceeding. He had an opportunity to talk with them, and I'm certain that on the second question he'd be able to respond in terms of the dialogue that he had.

Dr. Swann: Well, we've been here before, Mr. Speaker. Our schools are barely recovering from the 20 per cent cuts inflicted in the governments of the 1990s. We've still got the lowest high school graduation rate in the country. Will the Premier at least acknowledge here and now that these extreme cuts have damaged our credibility and our graduating and should never be repeated?

Mr. Hancock: Thank you. Mr. Speaker, the only people that are talking about extreme cuts are the ATA in their advertising campaign. What I've been talking about with school boards and superintendents is understanding that we're in a fiscal situation, using that fiscal situation to its best advantage in examining everything we're doing to determine whether we're doing the right things and whether we're doing them in the right way. That's what we're up to. It's not a question of massive cuts or destroying the system. We've got the best education system in North America and certainly one of the best in the world, and we're going to continue to provide the proper educational opportunities for every child in this province.

Dr. Swann: Our schools have ridden this government's boom-and­-bust fiscal roller coaster for far too long. When is this Premier going to start treating education as an investment by delivering a plan for sustainable funding to our children and teachers? When?

Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, we do have a sustainable plan. It's one of the reasons we've saved $17 billion in what we call a sustainabili­ty fund. We're going to use that $17 billion to cushion the rapid drop in the revenue stream to the province. That will cover about three-quarters of the perceived revenue loss over the next few years, and the other quarter will come from adjustments in our budget. We'll be working through those over the next number of weeks, and we will deliver a budget that's going to reflect the priorities of Albertans.