Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister. Two or three Members recently met with the Mine Training Society. They are totally desirous of having the opportunity to provide training for P2 candidates. They agree with the diamond mining companies that we need to have more candidates take the training and they’re funding, yes, it’s only Aboriginal, but, Mr. Minister, what I’m trying to say is, will you consider putting some money into the Mine Training Society Training Program so that P2s would have an opportunity to get a seat there? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to first ask relative to apprenticeship and occupations, I know that the department works in conjunction with the Mine Training Society and they are doing a great job of providing training and jobs basically for many of our young people. I am somewhat concerned, though, that the funding, the federal funding for that program restricts applicants to Aboriginal persons and I’ve had several inquiries from constituents whether or not there is any space within the Mine Training Society for P2s as opposed to P1s. I’ve been advised that if there’s space, that P2s can get...

Thanks to the Minister. It’s good to hear that we’re doing things now and not waiting. I have one other question and it relates to the space that the college currently occupies and the lease that they have and that the lease is ending. I think this has been mentioned maybe not this week but certainly over the last year, that the department has known that the lease for the college is going to be ending in a year or so. There were certainly some investigations done as to some potential sites for the college to move. About a year ago I think there was a possible solution and yet here we are a...

I’m struggling here. I understand that this money sunsets but there is no reduction in the ECE budget of $400,000 that I can see. In fact, my bottom line for the budget is that their dollars go up. So how is the $400,000 which is sunsetting, how is that amount of money going to be used within the ECE budget?

I have one last question; I believe it belongs on this page. The Auditor General’s report on education referenced a number of things, but one of the things that I think was fairly strong in her report was that the department needed to do more in terms of data accumulation and program evaluation. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not that recommendation from the Auditor General was taken into consideration with the development of this budget. How much is being spent on this particular area within the department? Has there been an increase in the funds apportioned to data...

Thanks for the explanation. It creates another question. Where do the other costs, the other $200,000 in fees and payments show up? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that there is lots of work to be done. I appreciate that there are different priorities. I am just having trouble understanding how the establishment of libraries in communities is going to assist our students in school to achieve success. Can I have an explanation from the Minister as to how that is going to happen? Thank you.

I guess I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to provide that information. I’d like to know what it’s costing us to do this. If there are savings, where are the savings coming from and how do we get to cost neutral and/or actually gain some money? If he could commit to that, thank you.

Just one last question, I guess. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not there was an evaluation done of this particular program that Food First Foundation was running. If the money is not going to Food First Foundation but it is going into the schools, what’s to guarantee that they’re going to use it for the same sort of program that Food First Foundation was running? Are we taking a program... If there was an evaluation done and it proved that the program was working well, why are we cancelling it?

I just again have to say that I think we’re missing the boat. The Minister mentioned...

Thanks for the response. So then, when we transfer school bandwidth totally way from GNWT, what kind of money are we looking at? Thank you.