 Really today what I'm here to talk about obviously is last night. Last night the Vancouver School Board and their decision to yet again make sure that they're not making decisions for students. I'm disappointed by last night's results and the votes that the Vancouver School Board made. The reason why is first of all I've been working with Mike Lombardi, met with Janet Fraser. I've had numerous discussions over the last couple of weeks with members of the Vancouver School Board of how do we make a made in Vancouver solution to help them in this time when they are having a hard time not only balancing their budgets but obviously making decisions, good decisions to help students. One of the things that I find quite surprising is the board chair and Ms Fraser met with me in Victoria and brought up the idea of the Kingsgate Mall. They brought up the idea that they owned a commercial property, an interest in a commercial property. In that discussion it was how do we make sure that we are investing properly to help students, to help programs and again asked for a made in Vancouver solution. What surprises me is that for the last couple of weeks again discussions have been ongoing, I've been discussing with the board chair how we can look at opportunities to help Vancouver specifically around the ownership that they have of commercial property. Interestingly the letter that I sent to the Vancouver School Board a couple of days ago was actually partly drafted and helped to be drafted by the Vancouver School Board chair himself so there was no surprise of what was coming forward. In fact we were trying to work together to get to a solution that was going to help the students of Vancouver which is why I'm surprised again that they would vote against something that they asked for, that they voted against the opportunity of a hundred million dollars going into Vancouver to help students. They've also refused to balance a budget and then they said that they were going to make cuts anyway to achieve a balanced budget and their staff are in the process of doing that. Again a sign of conflicting comments and conflicting ideas. They've also publicly come out and dared that I fire them. A pattern that seems to be year after year in the Vancouver School Board of continuing to play politics rather than worrying about students. Year after year they proclaim that they have large deficits but yet pass the balanced budget and usually have a surplus year over year as the chart next to me shows. All of this tells me one thing. The Vancouver School Board is more interested in political games rather than dealing with what they're supposed to be doing under their jobs as board members which is delivering the best education possible for students making great decisions for programs and investing the almost half a billion dollars a year that they receive of taxpayers money to go into programs to help everyone in the Vancouver area. It's time for those games to end. Enough is enough. If this is not about politics this has to be about making good decisions and helping students in the Vancouver area. Now I know what a lot of you are probably expecting me to say now that I'm going to be firing the board because they are not doing their jobs. They are not. But I'm not going to do that today. Why? Because parents in Vancouver I think have had enough as well. They've had enough of the politics. They've had enough of us being out there not making good decisions with the Vancouver School Board for students. We have empty seats. We have political agendas. Decisions need to be made for students. So instead of firing the Vancouver School Board today what I'm going to be doing is making sure that we look forward and start making the best decisions possible for the students in Vancouver to give the parents comfort that we are moving in the right direction that they're getting the best education possible. So I am announcing today that we are going to be sending in and informing the Vancouver School Board that we are sending in a full audit team. They're going to do a thorough, a detailed and an in-depth forensic audit of the Vancouver School Board, a full review of their decision making and that almost half a billion dollars that they receive and how that money is being spent and how it should be spent for students. As I mentioned the taxpayers of British Columbia, specifically the parents here in Vancouver deserve better. They deserve good decision making. They deserve the best opportunities for their students possible. When I look at the fact that the board is counting on staff to continue to make cuts in absence of an actual direction from the board also sends a clear message to me that we need to take an unflinching look at the books and the board governance at the VSB. So that's what we're going to be doing. We are going to put a full audit team together. We need to be holding decisions accountable but more importantly we need to ensure that we're offering and receiving the best education possible in Vancouver. Decisions that the Vancouver School Board have been making I think have proven that that's not happening. The Vancouver School Board asked for me to find a made in Vancouver solution. They identified that they needed approximately six million dollars to avoid cuts. We found a solution. We found an opportunity to avoid those cuts here in Vancouver. The board voted against that. That's disappointing. It's upsetting. It's unfortunate that cuts are going to have to take place because of the inaction and the in decisions of the Vancouver School Board. Again, it's time to stop playing politics. It's time to do the right thing. We need to be looking out for students year after year. It seems like we continue down this path and I want to stop this game and we're going to start looking at what's right for students once and for all and hopefully this audit team when we go through will identify the fact that we need to be investing in our students, not into politics. So as the minister, I want to make sure that parents understand that we care. We want to make sure money's invested property and more importantly we know not only by our outcomes, but we know here in Vancouver and all in British Columbia that we have one of the best education systems in the world. Take the politics out of it, get to what we're supposed to be doing and that's taking care of kids. Thanks very much.