Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, this line item does not speak to the program that the Member is referring to. This line item, it speaks to the diploma program through Aurora College. So ECE has been funded for that program for multiple years but, unfortunately, that program does not exist yet. And so to ensure that we're using the dollars as committed to by the Legislative Assembly, those dollars have been removed until such time that I can come forward to FMB with a proposal from Aurora College in order to accurately request dollars for that program. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, definitely in our February sitting, we spoke a lot about wage grids and about funding to the sector. It was repeated quite a bit that in order to be able to increase the wage grid to be more on par, for example, with education assistants in our education system, that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment would need additional funding to be able to do that. That I have not been shy about repeating and, to be honest, I was surprised not to see an ask for additional ELCC funding come out of the report that was tabled by Regular Members...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would like to just say for the record that we called our program Skills 4 Success first before the feds and, unfortunately, the two are not related; they just share a name. So when the federal government came out with their funding program, it had the same name as our existing strategy. So the two are not related. Our strategy still exists, but that federal funding has sunset. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is absolutely true that Members would have heard, as well as the public, that there is an intent to streamline arts spending within ITI and immigration within ECE. It was important to me that that announcement be made as soon as possible so that the work could then follow in a much more transparent and public way around making sure that we were transitioning stuff so that the staff that are involved in those programs so intimately could be involved in that planning process, and so you will definitely still see budgets reflected in their...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by just first thanking Members for continuing this conversation on the floor of the House and out in public as well because I do think this is a very important project, and having their voices lent to it is very important.

Mr. Speaker, while I am not responsible or accountable to the operations within Aurora College, I am accountable to the dollars that we as an Assembly approve for Aurora College for their running of their programs. When transformation was underway in the previous Assembly, it was agreed by senior management of...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's definitely a twofold one where if we want to be able to pay people on par with education assistants, then we definitely need the additional funding. Part of the additional funding hope as well is that you would incentivize more people to enter into that sector and then, of course, we also do need the infrastructure funding as well to be able to pay for more spaces to be built.

And, Mr. Chair, through yourself, can I please pass as well to the deputy minister who would like to add something.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is a supplement for people. Once you reach a certain age, you get a small amount of money that is provided to you. And for further detail than that, I'd like to pass to Mr. Saturnino. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Member for that clarification. So that portion there is a portion of the funding for the Indigenous languages diploma program that I spoke of earlier. That was money that was put in our budget so that we would have it for Aurora College when they came forward with their diploma program. But, unfortunately, that has not happened as of yet. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the perspective of the system would be in order to ensure the safety of children in care. One of the things I know, just having spoken to people about this especially in the last term, was in regards to, you know, why can we have a certain number of kids in a classroom and then it shifts to after school care, and we have less kids that are allowed to be less in the adult to child ratio that we're allowed that we are allowing in after school care programs. And one of the things that is communicated to me is because during the day when you have school...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department did put out a call to education bodies as a whole to ask them, you know, what would work, do you foresee a possibility to offer up some dollars from your budgets. And without any surprise, of course, the answer was no, which we a hundred percent respected because, like many members have said, you know, our foundation to our economic foundation begins with educating our youth. And so we absolutely respected that. But what the education bodies did offer up were some suggestions of where to create some savings within the department...