Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I used my Member’s statement today to talk about junior kindergarten and certainly the impact of re-profiling 7 percent of their funding model without working together with them. While I explained and it was certainly illustrated during my Member’s statement, what if we took 7 percent of the Department of ECE’s budget how they would go kicking and screaming.

Now, let’s talk about the broader picture now being forgotten about this whole situation, which are the day homes. Ironically, that’s part of the reason why this whole shift of junior kindergarten has evolved.

So, as...

I’m trying to put my finger on those allocations as to where the money is going. Thank you.

What page would that be on if this isn’t the appropriate page?

Thank you. I guess the same questions to the Minister. We can go through it all or I think he understands funded, unfunded, which, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve asked the question repeatedly. I think he knows the question by now. To the Minister, I guess.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to stand up and use this occasion to revisit the issue of junior kindergarten. Last week the Minister made a statement, and that was his second statement in this particular House where he talked about junior kindergarten will be available for four-year-olds starting in the new year, and of course, it will be rolled out over three years throughout the various communities.

Let me first get the biggest issue out of the way. I don’t know anybody who is against junior kindergarten. There is nobody on this side of the House against junior kindergarten, and sometimes in...

There must be some of those salary dollars not being specifically allocated to human resources, because when you have the rolling vacancy that means there’s a vacancy. Yes, sometimes it’s 9 percent and sometimes it’s probably down to 4 percent, other times it must be 15 percent. That’s why we pick an average to work off of and that’s why I asked the department about the average. How much of that money isn’t being allocated to human resource dollars and where is that money going?

Thank you. Is there any specific allocation for the unfunded positions and where would I find that, on what page? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two areas I’d like to question. I guess the first one we’ll get out of the way. I had the same questions in the previous pages and I guess we can probably save a lot of time if the Minister can provide the same information and the same detail, as requested, under each section under compensation and benefits. Would he do that?

Thank you for that. If we may work with just under $6 million, then, as a figure, if there is just under $6 million in resources in the department wrapped up in the rolling average of vacancies within the department, does the department have a utilization plan specific to those types of dollars and how is that money spent?

Thank you. Is there any commitment to finding out how many there are of those relief positions, and furthermore, what do they cost? Thank you.