R.J. Simpson

Thank you. I think the indications from the federal government is that this is funding that they would like to see entrenched. Perhaps I can hand it over to Mr. MacDonald, who might have some more information.

Thank you. I'm guessing we bought something big. If you give me a moment, I might be able to find out what that was. What that is, is a reallocation of funds from fees and payments to contract services, and those contract services are used to pay for the itinerant team, which is child and youth counsellors who travel to different communities. Thank you.

Thank you. I think it might have to do with the federal election, but it's a bit of a waiting game right now. It's not just us. All of the territories and provinces are waiting to hear back from the federal government about what their offer is and what we could be negotiating for. Thank you. I don't have a timeline for the Member. I am sorry.

Thank you. I don't have a breakdown in front of me of the distribution of these funds, but that's definitely something we can get to Member. We might be able to get it by the end of the day. I know we have people watching and working furiously and sending us emails. We can get that done, and hopefully, I'll be able to have an answer for you later on. Thank you.

Thank you. It's hard to predict a lot of these programs, but I think that, if you look at the statistics of the number of people who are getting to a certain age, more people are going to become eligible for the programs, and hence there is going to be more uptake. That's certainly what we've seen. You know, there are also fuel prices. While these aren't tied to fuel prices, necessarily, if a senior runs out of fuel, we don't just leave them hanging. If they've used their entire benefit and they still are eligible for Income Assistance, we'll help them out so that their house doesn't freeze in...

Thank you. If you will just give me a moment, I have to pull up that information. In 2018-2019, we had 486 full-time students and 1,523 part-time students enrolled. I will get you the graduation numbers shortly.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left is Ms. Rita Mueller, the deputy minister of the department; on my right is Mr. Sam Shannon, assistant deputy minister of Corporate Services; on my far right is Mr. John MacDonald, the assistant deputy minister of Education and Culture; and, not sitting with us right now but waiting in the witness room for his time to shine, is Mike Saturnino, the assistant deputy minister of Income Security and Advanced Education, who I will, with your permission, call upon at the appropriate time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Yes, we do. We track the funding amount entering each education council's or authority's region as well as the number of positions that that money is being used to fund. Thank you.

Thank you. That would be ideal. That is what we would hope for, that we could have these supports in every community, or every region, at least, but the fact is that it's expensive. The cost of travel would be dwarfed by the cost of having these people in all of these regions. I'm not sure if that answers the question. We would love to, but it's not feasible at this point. Thank you.

Thank you. If the Member is looking for metrics of how many scholarships, what we have done, the numbers involved, we will definitely put that together. Thank you.