Wendy Bisaro

I wasn’t asking for the Auditor General’s recommendations. Normally, when somebody is looking at things and you are looking at what they are looking at, oftentimes things jump out at you. I just wondered whether or not the department had, at this point, recognized that they have some deficiencies on their own without the Auditor General having to tell them that.

I wanted to ask a question with regard to the amount of money at the bottom of page 10-27 that talks to program delivery details. The amount of money for income assistance programs actually is going down this year, ’13-14, as compared...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the deputy minister for her comments. I want to say that I am a little concerned that safe schools and anti-bullying are mentioned in the same breath and they seem to have the same focus. For me, safe schools or a safe schools plan or policy encompasses far more than just anti-bullying. In my mind, it should look at safe schools in terms of students, the safety of the students. It should look at the safety of the teachers and it should look at the safety of other staff within the school. Bullying is one aspect, but there certainly are other things which happen...

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Is committee agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to, at the outset, say that I echo Mr. Bromley’s comments. I think the Minister has heard me say a number of times that I’ve encountered constituents who have had great difficulties with income support. It is an area that is difficult, and I appreciate that it’s a difficult area for the department to staff and to keep trained up.

But it’s such an important area, and I give credit to Mr. Bromley’s request for dignity for everybody who has to go there. I think lots of times that’s not what comes first when people are going to income support. It’s not what they feel...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll just speak briefly to the motion. We have had a lot of discussion about inclusive schooling, and I think one of the things that this motion tries to address is that the current Inclusive Schooling funding does not work. Providing a percentage of funding according to population to schools is not recognizing that there are certain schools and/or certain authorities who have a higher need for funding for special needs students. It’s been suggested that maybe the funding should follow the student, and I’m not so sure that that’s the exact way to go, but certainly we need...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

For fiscal year 2012-2013, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment re-profiled $1 million from the Inclusive Schooling budget to Early Childhood Development initiatives.

Immediately following year end for fiscal year 2012-2013 March 31, 2013, I ask that the Minister provide a list of actual expenditures for that same $1 million.

Thanks for the information. So this Small Community Employment Fund, my understanding is that was established by one of the special committees during the 16th Assembly and I think this committee was revived in the 17th. Was this re-profiling of this $400,000 something that the Rural and Remote committee was aware of? Were they consulted before the decision was made to re-profile the money?

Thanks to the Minister for that update. That’s good to hear. I know there are difficulties with dealing with the federal law, so I’m glad to hear that it’s on the radar and hopefully it will happen in the next couple of years.

I wanted to ask the Minister a question about inclusive schooling. It’s been a hot topic in the last couple of weeks, but in the Minister’s opening remarks he spoke to the department is working with education authorities to improve the delivery of student supports provided under the Inclusive Schooling program, and at the end of the paragraph he said it will help us build...

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I appreciate, and gather from his response, we don’t currently have anything that recognizes sort of magnet community schools and the needs that they have. I’m really pleased to hear that that is something that the department is considering.

Similar to that, some schools obviously end up with more special needs students than others. Some end up with students with much higher needs than others. That ends up putting an extra financial burden on either a board or a school.

I’d like to know from the Minister if, at this point in time, our funding formula...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m done.