Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Deputy Minister Sylvia Haener, and on my left Assistant Deputy Minister of Corporate Services Mr. Olin Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is just how the mains are structured. They have always been like this. We would have to work with the Department of Finance if we want to make those kinds of changes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and definitely I think that we are going to need to look outside of our jurisdiction but also look outside of Canada when we are looking at the skilled labour market. We are hoping to have that immigration strategy that we are currently working on be released sometime this summer; possibly June I think. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do two streams with this funding, as I mentioned earlier. There is a wage subsidy option as well as community projects that can be looked at being funded. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No. I just appreciate the Member's feedback. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are doing a number of things within the department with our education renewal. One thing in terms of graduation, we are doing a Pathways to Graduation that we are working with students as young as grade seven, grade eight, and finding what their needs are, as I mentioned in my Minister's statement earlier today. What their interests are, what they want to explore, and we want to support that.

The instructional hours allows for teachers to do some planning, assess, do some professional development for themselves, and get prepared so that they can have quality education...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, income assistance is not indexed to CPI. There are various things that we do take into consideration when we look at income assistance and providing that financial support. It is on a case-by-case basis. From my knowledge, I don't think any jurisdiction in Canada actually indexes their income assistance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's the intent of this accountability framework. As you see, we do have a contribution agreement with the Aurora College for quite a lot of money and we want to make sure that dollars are being spent effectively, efficiently, and that they are held accountable to the dollars that we are providing them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the grants, those are more dollars for the individual, where, under contributions, we try to work with community organizations that will help employ people with disabilities, so the dollars there are a little bit higher. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think a great vision would be to see more of our young adults who have been out of the school system for a while, even adults getting back in and getting the education that they need to become employable. I know there's going to be a big focus on the Skills 4 Success initiative that we've undertaken. We've already got that into the secondary schools, and they want to utilize our community learning centres to the best of their ability so that they can help our residents become educated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.