Ask the right questions
The Province
April 25, 2010
By Dawn Steele

I don't care how many accountants Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid sends to Vancouver to help assesses the schoolboard's budget. More important is that they ask the right questions.

The terms of reference for the special adviser exclude any consideration of whether provincial education funding is enough or of how $18 million in cuts will impact Vancouver's students. Flying a high-powered team to Vancouver just to read trustee resumes and committee minutes is a colossal waste of time and money.

To use a medical analogy, the minister is asking the doctor to choose between removing the patient's heart or his liver.

When the doctor warns either will be fatal, she sends an inspector to see if the surgical instruments are clean.