Hon. James McCrae (Minister of Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I have a ministerial statement. I do not have the copies; I am just awaiting them. If I might ask for leave to bring it up in a moment or two.

Madam Speaker: The honourable Minister of Education and Training, with a ministerial statement.

Mr. McCrae: Madam Speaker, I am deeply saddened and shocked by the events that have transpired over the last 24 hours in Taber, Alberta. That such a senseless and horrific event could take place in that small farming community or anywhere else in our great country is truly a tragedy.

To the family and friends of Jason Lang, a young 17-year-old who was really just beginning his life, I offer our condolences on their loss. To the family and friends of 17-year-old Shane Christmas, now in hospital, I offer our thoughts and our prayers for a quick recovery. To the entire community, I offer all residents our condolences. You are all in our prayers. The road to recovery is a long one, and the strength and support of the community will help you down that path. To the gym teacher of W.R. Myers High School, Cheyno Finney, for his quick action in stopping the shooting before it went any further, I thank him for his incredible courage.

With the recent shooting in Littleton, Colorado, fresh in our minds and heavy in our hearts, we must all look to one another for support, strength and guidance. Be it parents, students, teachers, neighbours, friends or colleagues, I would encourage you to talk to one another about these recent events. Yesterday's shooting was the first fatal shooting in a Canadian high school in 20 years. Although this type of incident is by far not a regular occurrence, the fact that it did happen demonstrates that the possibility of it happening again is an awful reality that we must all face.

There is a need for discussion in our schools, in our homes, in our communities. What have we done that has worked? What can we do to make it better? Where do we go from here to ensure our communities are safe and that our children have the supports they need? There are going to be students who are scared to step into a school, teachers who will be scared. Yesterday's shooting is far too close to home, and we must all work together to ensure we are doing our best to provide our children with the support, the love and the guidance they need to grow to be healthy, productive members of society.

We in Manitoba know that one can never guarantee such tragedies will never happen in Manitoba in the future, but we can work to do our best to prevent them. Today I am sending a letter to school authorities asking that they review their safety and security measures in their schools.

Again, I offer my condolences to the families and friends, the students, teachers and staff at W.R. Myers High School and to the entire community.

Ms. Jean Friesen (Wolseley): I want to respond to the minister's comments and to say that on this side of the House we share the terrible sadness, I think, that fills the small town of Taber, Alberta. We want to offer our condolences to the family and to the friends of Jason Lang. I heard his father speak on the radio this morning, and I think the Reverend Lang and his family are taking great comfort in their religion and in the community of Taber and the supports that they are able to bring to the families of all those people who have been affected, not just those who suffered directly but the teachers, the parents, people who work at that school and all of those, I think, not just in Alberta but across Canada who feel so very deeply about the loss of any young person and in such terrible circumstances.

Madam Speaker, what we have seen, not just in the United States but certainly across the United States with what is becoming almost a sickening frequency, events of this type where young children are involved with guns and young children turn upon each other, and it is an almost incomprehensible thing, I think, for most of us in this House and most families in Manitoba to understand. There are times such as the murder of the young women in Montreal at the Ecole polytechnique; there is the murder of the 16 children in Dunblane, 16 children and one teacher, such very young children who were killed there. It makes us all think of how much we owe to those members of our community who keep our children safe day after day in our schools, the people who drive our children to school, the public transport, the people who look after them in school, who care for them throughout the day and who send them home to us again safe year after year.

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I know that teachers and principals, superintendents and the Minister of Education will be looking at the issue of safety in Manitoba schools; they will be looking at the issue of fire inspections; they will be looking at the issues of the rules and guidelines that teachers and parents have drawn up for each of their schools. I think, also, they will be looking at the nature of civil behaviour itself, of how we as a community bring up our children to relate to each other, the children who feel they are so isolated, so separate from the rest of their community. This is the only response that they can turn to. I know that many schools do address this, and they address it very well through peer teachers, through peer evaluators, through conflict resolution in the schoolyard and in the classroom. I know many schools in my constituency and across Manitoba have undertaken that, beginning at the very beginning with how we treat each other civilly and how we find a place in all our communities for all our children.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of this side of the House, I want to extend our condolences to the people of Alberta, to the town of Taber and especially to the families of those young children who will face a future that I think is not what they would have thought of just a few days earlier. Thank you.