Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we are going through a financial crunch, but this is something that we can definitely explore for next year’s budget. We have already identified the $150,000 and Student Financial Assistance program, of course, with a number of family members, but this is an area that we can explore further. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Yes, we don’t have the detailed information here, but we’d be more than willing to provide that information to the Members. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, some of the money that’s been identified or reallocated to other programming to offset the costs of, I guess you would say, higher costs to operate. The money has been expended in other areas as well. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, I totally agree with the Member. This is an area that we have explored and we are currently working the college as well. Community learning centres fall under the college, but there have been talks about the schools -- the schools are open during the school year but closed during the summer -- how we can take advantage of that during the summer months. There have been talks about different programming over the summer months so there can be continuity.

One obstacle that’s also in the way is the union issue where teachers, once they finish school they’re off over the summer, but there...

Since this is under the direction of the college, I will be more than willing to share that with the Board of Governors. I will be meeting with them. At the same time, I guess, some of the programs have also had practicums, but this information will be shared with the president and also the college itself. Mahsi.

This is an area that we can look at. We need to find out the status of the programming where there’s been access 13 times over the last 10 years. Why is that? The program itself, we as the Department of Justice can look at the overall program.

Mr. Chair, there is no specific category for IT support. Again, the money that we allocate to the education authority, they can utilize the funding if they feel that it’s a priority to support more in the IT area. Again, it’s at their discretion. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I already did commit in this House that I will be looking at this. If we need to change the policy, we’ve always changed our policies in the past so it can reflect on what the Member is referring to, and if there can be home visits, that’s an area that we need to look at as well. Mahsi.

What we do have are the regions and also headquarters. Headquarters lost three positions and the regions lost 7.75 positions. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Dan Daniels, deputy minister of ECE; Mr. Paul Devitt, director of strategic and business services.