To-day, April 4, 1987 Honourable Gordon L. Bennett : Yea, in Prince Edward Island , and total sal¬ aries in Nova Scotia . L. George Dewar : In Nova Scotia the range ia from $6,700 to $8,960, that ia the range of srovernment grant In Prince Edward Island it is from $8,760 to $6,000 which ia a difference of $2,000 to $8,960. New Brunswick the range ia $6,700 to $9,200 which T believe is total salary that the teacher receives. Unfortunately this province haa a long way to go yet in order to come up to the salaries that are paid In Nova Scotia for teachers. Another item that I thought probably I should mention and one which the Miniater said was, I think he used the word "monumental achievement", and that was the (riving away of school books. They call them "free" school bonks but I sub¬ mit, Mr. Speaker , that they are not free, that they cost the taxpayers of this province plenty and that the students do not receive any books. They receive free rental books free rental and I have no doubt that it is quite an assistance to a number of families. But I t.hirk it is more in the way of a social welfare measure than an educational measure. I believe it is one that should have been looked after by the Honourable Minister of Welfare rather than the Minister of Education because I believe that there are dubious benefits as far aa education is concerned. I will admit it is a worthwhile welfare measure on behalf of the people of the province and I further think that the Minister should not have turned around and charged outrageous prices to people who did feel that they would like to buy for their children. These prices went up two and three hundred percent; it was sort of an "Indian Gift", Mr. Speaker . He gave it with one hand and took it away with the other. The Minister has stated that he will have the School Act brought in for re¬ vision and I must congratulate him on that. I realise that this is a difficult piece of legislation to revise — I had my troubles with it on a number of occasions. I thought I had people qualified to do it, engaged to do it, and difficulties arose and it wasn't done. I hope the Minister is successful in bringing this legislation before the House because it certainly needs to be consolidated and revised. The Minister spoke about the consolidation of schools and I am rather sur¬ prised at some of his philosophy with respect to consolidation. We read in the press during the Fall, and this is an item attributed to the Education Minister on the 16th of December, 1966, wherein he said that one-third of the schools had already been provided by the previous administration and that thirty more schools were neces¬ sary' m order to provide a proper consolidated school program in the province. But then he spoiled the whole article by ending up and saying the present school con¬ struction haa been stopped until the Department can be sure that a master-plan for school location is aa good aa it can be. A Boundaries Commission is at work with the aim of keeping travel time at a minimum. Of course, I realise that perhaps the Miniater of Education is having difficulties pursuing this consolidation of schools, and I submit that it is the greatest problem in education in \this province today. I submit also, Mr. Speaker , that if this problem existed in the Town of Summerside or in the City of Charlottetown , or even in the Village of Sherwood , that it would be mighty soon attended to. There would be no excuses or putting off. The conditions that exist in many of our rural schools is lamentable and many of them are having great difficulties in getting any kind of a teacher to look after them. The Miniater feels that we have to proceed slowly on account of the cost, and I know it is an expansive matter but I believe, and I believe the Minister's philosophy should be, that any money spent on education is a good investment and will return money two-fold and three-fold aa the years go by (Hear, hear). I don't think we should ever be scared to invest money in education. I think it is the best investment that we can make. He speaks about bankruptcy, that the province may go bankrupt pro¬ viding these schools. I don't believe that. In 1960 there were those who said that if we proceeded with a program of building Regional High Schools that it would be a tremendously expensive thing and the government would never find the money, or evea the teachers to staff them. But we went ahead with that program and we pro¬ vided Regional High Schools so that every student in the province could get the benefits of secondary school education. And there were problems, there were financial problems; but the money appeared, the work went on and we are still carrying on and the income of the province haa gone up. The government at that time had only about fifteen million dollars of revenue, today the revenue is up to forty-five —105—