Wendy Bisaro

Thank you. I think the Minister missed my point. I have no concerns with the process. I never once mentioned the process. My concern is that a request for tender does not get us the evaluation of the contractor that we should be getting. It doesn’t allow us to look at all aspects of the service that we’re asking for. I know that the northern agencies were given preferential treatment, that was made very evident to me and I have no concern with that.

It’s been about a month now since that contract has been awarded and I now understand that some of our medical travel staff are experiencing some...

That’s good to hear. Twenty-two committees. We have more than 22 communities. Are we going to have an appeals committee in each community or will there be some serviced regionally?

The medical travel contract is a service and people-oriented agreement. The buyer -- that would be Stanton Hospital -- should take that into consideration when evaluating bids. A tender can’t do that because the tender has only one criterion: the price. On the other hand, a proposal is judged on many things: service, track record and competent staff being three of them. I suspect that we will soon be hearing of difficulties in the medical travel office: inefficiencies, delays, extra workload for staff. I don’t wish for it but when it happens, I will try not to say I told you so.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have one question on this page. The Community Skills for Work Program talks about funding to support adult basic education and job-related skills for income assistance clients and other individuals. I was curious why this is listed here under advanced education. Is it a college program? Is it funded as a college program or is it funded through income security? It just seems a little out of place in this section.

So that’s $100,000 for three centres at the moment, is that correct?

Thank you, Mr, Chair. I have a couple of questions here. I’d like to ask, it references a contribution I think on the next pages, but I believe it falls in this section. In the last couple of years the department has made a grant or a contribution to the Food First Foundation, and from a letter, which I mentioned to the Minister of Health last week I think it was, it came from the Executive, it was on Executive letterhead but it was signed by the Minister of Education and it sounds as though, in the letter, as though the Food First Foundation will not receive any funding in the 2011-12 fiscal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that they try to respond to people but I guess, you know, as soon as possible, in my mind, if I have an appointment, I want to see my person at the appointed hour.

The Minister says that things are in the works. I’d like to know -- with a school year starting again, they want applications in by July of this summer coming up -- when can the Minister tell us that we will be able to see some of these revisions? When will there be some concrete action for us to look at?

I’m encouraged to hear that it’s going to be looked at. I’m a little disappointed that it hasn’t been looked at already, but something is better than nothing. I guess I want to impress upon the department how important it is that there be a stable source of funding for our daycares. That we’re doing an early childhood framework is a good thing. I think I mentioned that earlier. I’d like to know from the Minister -- either I have a poor memory or it hasn’t been mentioned yet -- when can we expect the results of the review of early childhood that is going to be happening or is happening now.

I thank the Minister for that response. I appreciate that the department is taking action. I would hope for a little bit more specific response.

I would like to talk a bit about the results of another question. This was a question asked about the usefulness of the student handbook. The answers there were very disturbing to me: 71 percent of the replies were negative; 32 percent of them said they never use it; 39 percent of the students said that it was somewhat useful. It seems to me that it’s obvious that a revision is needed. I’d ask the Minister what plans the department has to revise the...

That’s great. Thanks for the response and the clarification. I would like to ask some questions, as well, on early childhood and the funding of early childhood programs. I raised an issue a number of sessions ago, a while ago, as to how daycares and early childhood centres are funded. At the time, I got the impression from the Minister that there was going to be some change to the way that daycares are funded. I just would like to know a couple of things. The first thing is: what is the current method of funding for daycares that ECE provides?