Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just my last question here. In terms of oil and gas, obviously a big impact on the land, any role of this department?

I’m just asking because some departments have not been showing. They’ve adjusted their budgets to show what their budgets would have been last year if they didn’t have those positions, so that’s why I’m trying to get clear on this. Despite the fact that we’ve lost 19 positions here, this department has increased its budget slightly is my understanding right now.

Mr. Chairman, my last question here. Who would be coordinating? Would there be one coordinating federal Minister in the areas where there was a federal role, for example, DFO on environment and AANDC? Would AANDC be coordinating that or would our Lands Minister, as an authority, play a role of coordinating federal departments separately? Thank you.

I see the $680,000 in School of Community Government. Is there somewhere else that $320,000 could be located in another division? Thank you.

I think the difficulty is that the administration, the legislation that we’re adopting does not make that requirement clear. That’s how the federal government had to accept $8 billion in liability for largely northern mines because of a failure to hold security for those mines.

In contrast, I think we have a requirement now in the Commissioner’s Land Act on Commissioner’s land. So that is a different situation, as the Minister was saying. Given that right now it sounds like we’re at the mercy of the board on whether they assess financial security or not, the need for financial security or not...

Yes, just to finish that off, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister. Did the communities receive the same funding this year as they did last year, or did they receive the full amount last year, and are we committed, are these long-term programs now, or are we still trying to portray these as pilot projects that nobody is going to invest in?

A huge disappointment here, obviously. This is molasses at 40 below. The committee has been clear that we want these on-the-ground community programs in place. So, based on what I heard, if I heard it accurately, extremely disappointing.

As we know, last year at this time, when we looked at the budget, the money had not been delivered to those communities, or perhaps it was delivered during the week that we were discussing it. So within a few weeks they had to spend all that money, probably frantically and inefficiently. So, again, I’m not impressed and I think this department needs some...

Thanks to the Minister. Very briefly, a comment, this will be my last comment hopefully on ECD, early childhood development. The premise that junior kindergarten is the way to go rather than focussing on zero to three, I know the Minister is aware that this is a contention here. Particularly on the claim that because services for zero to three age classes are fragmented, is a great leap and highly debatable, huge assumptions made there and I totally disagree with that. I think we are missing the boat. There is little evidence that the issues we are seeing can be addressed through junior...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a lot of questions. I’ll see what I can get through here, and I appreciate very short, concise answers. Junior kindergarten, what’s the junior kindergarten implementation dollar amount for the 29 communities scheduled in ’14-15? That’s the year under discussion.

Secondly, I know the Minister has agreed that a fully qualified ECE worker is needed for every junior kindergarten group. I don’t call them a class because that implies teaching. We’re talking child development. The Minister has agreed with that, but I still haven’t heard him commit to meeting this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is no question, I think the record is strong and clear on the national and international front that early childhood development is the best possible investment that any government can do, that any nation can do, that any jurisdiction can do, in terms of education, reducing corrections costs, and economic development. The list goes on. Health and reducing health costs, generating local economies. The list goes on and on. Family integrity, social structures. These are completely well documented, especially when there’s a clear and consistent focus starting with the...