Bob Bromley

Thanks to the Minister. Just to be clear, we would have both what we’re paying now and what we would be paying if these workers all met federal standards for early childhood workers so that we can compare. That’s probably what the Minister was saying, but I didn’t hear it exactly, so I just want to be sure we’re talking about the same thing.

That’s good to know. Maybe that’s something the department could share with committee at some point just to see what those reports said. I’m glad efficiencies have been found and worked on. I guess I would just ask the Minister to be sure and include that, then, in the education renewal. That’s all I had.

I appreciate that information. Perhaps the Minister could provide, at his convenience, a comparison with the current fiscal year so we know where the changes have been made. More specifically, the House approved $1.25 million in the current fiscal year in addition to what was originally proposed in the mains for this fiscal year. I’m wondering if the Minister will provide an accounting for how that $1.25 million was expended.

Just one more follow-up on the early childhood development worker training at Aurora College and where we might be going with that. Obviously, I think we want our people looking after our children, especially in early childhood where so much is happening, to be fully qualified, and of course, we would need to pay them as such. Now, I’ve heard concerns that we don’t want to train workers because we don’t want to be paying those salaries. This is obviously of great concern to me. I think probably everyone would agree our children are our number one resource here. Could I get the perspective of...

Who does their technical work then? Do they hire their own? How does that work?

Thank you for that information, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Devitt. My concern is, early childhood development is quite different than education. There is an obvious need for some integration at the later stages with the education. But it is so important, as the Minister knows, to, I would say, just about all of our broad government goals that it needs to stand in an autonomous way. Is there a plan to take this early childhood development aspect out of the school services division, which there is a record of completely overwhelming the early childhood development aspects, and developing their own...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister has heard committee talk about renewable energy programs, energy efficiency programs and the need to get them into Aurora College. We’ve talked about that for a number of years. I’m not aware of any yet. Maybe I can get an update from the Minister. The Minister also has said that in the interim, the renewable energy aspects and energy efficiency aspects could be built into existing programs such as for electricians or plumbers, these sorts of things. Perhaps the community administration programs and so on. Could I just get an update from the Minister on...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did want to follow up on top of page 10-19, the large item there, education authority contributions. I’d like to just find out where we’re at with the TSC chargeback. We have learned that we are starting to bring our health authorities into the fold with TSC. The common comment from the Auditor General is that departments aren’t necessarily providing the standards and leadership that they could be for our authorities.

This is one area I think that could be very helpful, is if we’re all using the same system. So communications, and I think we’re working on the...

That’s all I had on this page. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the education system reform or review was mentioned on this page and I’m wondering, if there was a budget for that on this page, what is the amount?