Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The way it is possible to do that is because, when the previous president actually stepped down from the position, we used an acting position from the VP of student services. Of course, then, that position does not get two full salaries, so there were some savings there. As well, we haven't taken any of the funding away for the social work or education programs, so there is extra money in the college at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I would like to say that we monitor people right through adulthood, but I am not sure how we would do that. I am open to sitting down and talking about that, though. Currently, what we do now, though, is before children enter school, usually age five, we do the early development instrument, which tests their vulnerabilities in five areas, and then Alberta achievement tests are done annually in grade six and grade nine. We also do a middle years development instrument, and that is done annually in grade four and grade seven, and then, finally, we have a health...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we worked interdepartmentally, especially with ITI. We have shared the document in draft with the deputy minister. We are waiting to bring it to Cabinet and then to standing committee. The action plan actually moves forward. I think there are five areas in the strategic plan. The strategic plan is more of an overarching document, and then the action plan really is very concrete: how are we going to achieve these goals that we have set forth? The strategic plan is the overarching goals; the action plan is where the work is going to be done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $13 million that I had stated as a surplus was the surplus from 2017-2018. We are projecting that the fiscal year 2018-2019 actually will have a higher surplus. There were some difficulties with the accounting on some of the education bodies during 2017-2018. That bodies, there was only one in deficit, was actually projecting a surplus in the 2018-2019 because of the adjustments to the accounting, so it is not really reflective. Currently, how it stands, as stated earlier, the authorities are allowed to maintain 7 percent of their surplus, and they have to provide a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My commitment is to look at them and to actually get feedback from as many people. I have concerns, as well. I mean I often worry about giving people cash and then, you know, Christmas comes, and: do I put home heating or do I buy Christmas presents? That is my opinion, and so it would be totally inappropriate to do this based off of my opinion. When we do the evaluation, we will be looking for input from all regions, probably Aboriginal governments and staff and a number of people, to try to find out what is the best solution. The ideal, again, income support is a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Ms. Sylvia Haener, who is the deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. On my left is Laura Gareau. She is the assistant deputy minister for Corporate Services. Their role here today is to help me and make sure I don't get into any hot sauce while I am here.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The early childhood program operator subsidy is actually for daycares and family day homes, licensed; licensed daycare centres and licensed family homes. They are application-based for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My hope is that the reason it is going to work is because they are going to look from the foundation up. They are going to have a solid game plan. One of the next things that we are doing currently, along with the visioning exercise, is implementing two boards, not just a board with representatives from regions, as our old board was, which was nice. We need a board that has the skills, hopefully regional. One is around governance, how Aurora College is governed. The other board that we are looking at is an advisory board around programs, an advisory board that talks about...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. The strategy goes across all sectors. It does not just look at the arts council; it looks at the arts community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am trying to remember back to the days when I actually ran a daycare, which wasn't too long ago, actually. You have to remember that these positions are not in the daycare every single day. In fact, when I was running the daycare in Yellowknife here, that position came by twice a year, if I was lucky, usually for the inspection and then just prior to the inspection, a couple of months before, to actually do a mock inspection, to talk about things we were doing. So it is not a full-time position, that they need to be in the licensed daycare centres 24/7. It is more of an...