Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are currently developing an immigration strategy. The good news is our nominations program has been increasing by about 25 per cent each year, and last year we actually reached our goal and actually went above and beyond. I believe a total in 2016 we had 128, which was above what is normally seen. We continue to promote that program, as well as working with ITI on the business side, but we are developing an immigration strategy right now in partnership with ITI. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and as I mentioned back in September we did meet with the Aurora College with a reduction target. They did some work in collaboration with our departments, and these programs were the ones that were identified. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is correct, as well as working on community projects as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are still expecting to have an approach, a plan, in place for the fall time. In light of all the changes that we are making within the department and all the initiatives that we're doing, that's just on top of the workload that we have, but we're still hoping that in the fall time we'll have something.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have an arts strategy. It is probably a few years old, but we can take a look at it again and evaluate how it's working. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that answer for the Member right now, but we can speak to our immigration folks and see if we're getting any Syrian refugees who are coming through the Nominee Program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that's not from the intake. As I mentioned, we're going to continue to support the students who are in the current program right now for two more years of the social work program and then an additional three years for the TEP program. So no, those aren't the result. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As mentioned, there were some administrative reductions as well as the beginning of the social work program. That is where some of the details are. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am not really too sure of what a lot of these barriers were for students who enrolled in both programs, and we got low graduation rates out of the two. We also currently support students who are going down South, I believe 19 students who are taking a social work degree. We continue to support them. I am not too sure what some of the barriers were. Obviously, everyone has their own challenges when they're going to school, and some of those are probably taken into account. Our department, they have a great Student Financial Assistance program that supports students financially, and the Aurora...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is more of a funding ratio. With the junior kindergarten, when we were implementing it, we looked at the PTR and we felt that 12:1 was sufficient. Thank you, Mr. Chair.