Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister and I appreciate your commitment to look at it. I do want to just add that I know of at least one young person who couldn’t get into the Mine Training Society Underground Miner Program and has since moved to Manitoba. So we’ve lost our 22 or $25,000 annual payment for that young person.

I wanted to also ask a bit about the adult basic education programs that are run in pretty much all of our communities. We as Members did get a bit of a report from the Program Review Office quite a while ago, but it did have some telling information about adult basic education programs...

I’ll try again. Mr. Minister, I know that the program is funded by the feds. I do know as well that it is supported by the Department of Education, but also know that when non-Aboriginal students apply they are on a very low priority and it totally depends on whether or not there’s any space. My understanding is that there’s some waiting list of about 20, I think, persons trying to get into the next application for the Underground Miner Training Program. So if anybody wants to get into that and they’re non-Aboriginal, they don’t have a hope.

I also know that as much as a year ago, I think it...

That’s fine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that there’s going to be some work done. The Minister said at that time, so does that mean that we’re going to wait until 2012 to do something or will there be some work that’s done in the near future and when can Members expect some kind of a report on these programs?

Thanks to the Minister. I guess my concern is that data accumulation and program evaluation has been part of every budget and what we have previously been putting into this area hasn’t been enough, according to the Auditor General, and I would agree with the Auditor General. My question really is: in the 2011-2012 budget, do we have a greater emphasis -- and by that I probably mean more money -- assigned to data accumulation and program evaluation than in this current year’s budget, the 2010-2011 budget?

I would like to ask the Minister for this information as well. Could we get a sheet which identifies the internal reallocation from place to place where it has been moved from and to within the department and could we get that before we’re finished consideration of this department’s budget? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I am having a hard time with the explanation. I will leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of other questions here as well. In the figures that are on page 10-13, there’s an $80,000, approximately, increase in purchased services and then we have almost a $200,000 decrease in fees and payments. I was just wondering if I could get those changes explained, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to make a couple of comments and then I want to ask a question. Days run together and I don’t remember when I mentioned it, but I am a little concerned about the money that we’re spending on the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. I find no fault with the initiative, but when I attended the forum in Dettah a couple of weeks ago, my impression was that there are four priorities which the department has determined for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. The impression I got was that the number one priority was early childhood and that the money...

I like the sentiment that it would be cost neutral, but where’s the revenue coming from to pay for this expense? Thank you.