Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask some questions about the inclusive schooling to begin with. Can the Minister please explain why we see a reduction of $1 million and change being reduced from inclusive schooling? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for his answer. You almost confused me there. I lost my thought. That is easy today.

With this split in the two areas, small community employment and community service contracts of $920,000, can it be simplified and put into small communities so we would know exactly what the fund is instead of looking from one area to another area? I think it might be another question you might have to talk to the Finance Minister about moving it over. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hate to belabour the point, but talking about plans and actually doing are two different things, so I am a little concerned that, if we are planning to do something, we are not actually going to do it. I am hoping that I am hearing the Minister correctly and that we are going to proceed that way. Another question I do have, on to another thing, is that health, wellness, and school support is going up just over $1 million. Is this part of the inclusive schooling, is this part of the PTS teachers, or is there something else with this area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for his answer. When we look at the college from 1968 to 2008, we had 269 TEP graduates; 78 per cent of them were of Indigenous heritage. The Minister actually talked about 33 students going down South to attend school down in the southern part of Canada. Can the Minister provide a percentage of what Aboriginal students are attending school down South?

Thank you, and I thank the deputy minister for her answer. However, we are talking six months in. We have missed the summertime. We have missed a lot of opportunities for people in the small communities to do work, and that is a challenge. So if the department can't do it, can we look at another department, give the money to MACA or Finance so they can get that money to the Aboriginal communities so people can get to work as of April 1st? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will just leave that one alone now, and hopefully we will get some information back better next time so we can make better decisions or questions, I guess. In regards to the program support teacher, are we going to see program support teachers in all the schools, or is it going to be regionalized and numbered? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I was asking some questions of the Education, Culture and Employment Minister. When we talked about the three cuts at the college, they are all lower-entry-level. Did the department or the college actually look at making some cuts at the upper end of the college? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for that answer. So I guess my question is: are we looking at this as removing the salary subsidy and actually just making it job creation, or is it trying to fit within the parameters that presently exist in the policy? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Lovely, for your answer. Maybe, when we are providing these business plans and mains, we could actually put all the information where it should be so we are all together. That would be a recommendation. Can we get the Minister to commit to making that recommendation to clarify these books? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for his answer. However, I would like to inform the Minister that the access program students, they are not accounted for, to graduate in the North, and that is a challenge. Mr. Speaker, with the majority of the TEP and social work students tending to be young parents, did the college or the department consider the effects of making them uproot their families and lose some of their family support system here to attend school in the South?