Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome, guests.
I was a school board trustee in Saskatchewan for 10 years and also sat on the executive of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. As you all know, budgets everywhere have been reduced, and the first place you look at in schools is the purchase of new materials.
It's interesting, because the first cuts that we make as trustees around the table are usually to the resource library people, which is probably the last area you should look at. I do notice that in Saskatchewan—in fact, in Saskatoon right now—one school division is down $8 million, and the first place they looked at was teacher and librarian cuts.
I'm going to start with Ms. Levy and then I'm going to go to Ms. McNicoll.
Ms. McNicoll, you were right. On the teachers side, they spend their own money on books lots of times, and on writings and so on. Could you comment on that? Somebody made the comment that teachers are often at the photocopier at 7:00 in the morning or 4:30 in the afternoon. Can you talk about that?
I'll start with Ms. McNicoll. You're not blaming the teachers. You know, as school board trustees, we really looked the other way, to be honest with you, because we were looking for ways to save money for the school division. It's not only in Saskatchewan. I can tell you that Canadian school boards also looked the other way, because everyone is looking for money.