Bob Bromley

I guess basically I have some of the same concerns as Mrs. Groenewegen about this new approach. In the case of the Phoenix School it just seems like once they’re hitting their stride and getting successful and really starting to put out the graduates, and I believe our graduation rate has not been doing well, it’s sort of like a school that struggles and finally finds its stride and we start to penalize them and knock them back. I guess I’ll just leave it at that comment. Great if the Minister can assure me that’s not happening, but that’s the sense I’m getting. I hope the Minister will take...

If I could just get that repeated and confirmed that that’s the same for the current year, the proposed year and our previous fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, committee. Page 10-21, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, information item, education and culture, active positions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just briefly, since I think our first year of our term I’ve raised the concern that the Early Childhood Development Program produced child care workers that were not meeting federal standards. The Minister is aware of that. I’m just wondering, has anything ever been done to try and beef up that program to meet those standards. Thank you.

Is there a category of schools that increases in funding as a result of this formula? Is it perhaps those with smaller numbers of students increasing funding? How is it that some schools are increasing and some are decreasing?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The same sort of thing, I’m finding a lot of constituency work related to income security clients that, because of the way we deliver the programs, we are dealing often with disadvantaged people and the bureaucratic requirements are amazingly onerous, I have to say. I would be challenged with the hoops they have to jump through in terms of repeatedly submitting the same paperwork. The examples I’m thinking of, though, if you’re not on income support for a month or two, then you have to resubmit all of the applications and papers all over again and try and meet deadlines...

Page 10-19, agreed?

I’d just like a little more explanation on the Minister’s comment there on how this motion is being addressed in programs.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to follow up a little bit with the alternative schooling and in particular the Phoenix School. Am I correct in gathering that their funding is decreasing by about $200,000, about 50 percent of their allocation in 2011-2012?

I assume the lease will probably be at a higher rate than currently. Without being specific about amounts, I’m just asking if the department has planned for that greater expense in this budget. Thank you.