Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, the premise is wrong. This PC government has not failed Alberta students. In fact, this PC government has been the government for a period of time in which Alberta has moved to among the best in the world in education. Although we have a tough fiscal time like everybody else in the world, we're moving through that fiscal time in a prudent way, and we're asking school boards to work with us using their operating surpluses, looking at all of their programs and making sure that the Alberta education system, which is among the best in the world today, will be among the best in the world tomorrow.

You're invited to Coffee and Conversation with Alberta's Cabinet Ministers! Over the course of two weeks, Cabinet will be visiting communities around our province to talk to Albertans about their needs and desires, and the challenges that face us in the coming budget and the coming years.

If you have a question or concern you want to raise with a Minister, now is your opportunity to do so face-to-face. Capital Region MLAs will also be available for discussions.

Tuesday, February 8th
5:30 - 7:30pm
Sherbrooke Community Hall
13008 122 Ave.
Edmonton

Click here for a map of the location of the Community Hall.

Many thanks to the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues for their support.

I read with interest Mike Sadava's article "More Choice, Less Education" in the September edition of Alberta Views. I am always glad to see provocative public discussion of education, though I take exception to this article. It is essential to understand the broad context of Alberta's education system and the role of choice as one of several underlying values in this system.

In response to the local needs of Edmonton's communities, these projects integrate education, health, policing and other community support services to help ensure that everyone has the opportunity to make a positive contribution and lead a dignified and meaningful life.

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, with respect to the ASAP program, that's a process that takes a significant amount of time to put together. It is at its final stages, and announcements will be made soon. The school division that the hon. member has referred to has a school in that project. Their top priority school is going to be built at Langdon, as they asked.

Mr. Hancock: No, Mr. Speaker. I can understand the hon. member's frustration in that he chaired the task force and did an excellent job with the stakeholders in getting that report. But I would also say that it does take time to get policy approval and to put implementa­tion plans in place. We're working very, very strongly interdepart­mentally to make sure that Health, Children and Youth Services, and Education work together. This is a major shift in philosophy, from a diagnostic model to a learning-based model, and we need to take the time to do it right.

Mr. Hancock: Well, Mr. Speaker, nobody is forcing anyone to choose winners and losers. What school boards do is make sure that they provide the best possible educational opportunities for all the students they serve within the resources that are available. It's totally wrong to say that there are no new resources for new schools as much as it's totally wrong to say that the closing of older schools that have lost their student populations is simply a money issue. It's about educational programming, and school boards are in the best position to determine how they can best provide educational programming for their students.

While I fully appreciate these concerns, I will not be placing a moratorium on school closures. Under Alberta's School Act, these deliberations are quite properly the responsibility of local school boards, which are elected specifically to ensure that local needs and interests are addressed when educational decisions are made. It makes no sense to empower local boards with this authority, and then to second guess them each time they make a difficult decision.