First of all, a short commentary on the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and the Power Corporation which is under the Minister. On numerous occasions several times now, Mr. Dent has been able to come to my constituency. He has always been available for questions and concerns. I appreciate that. We have had some major concerns especially with student housing and that. On the Power Corporation over the last couple of years, we have had problems with power outages. We had a generator problem, the Minister responded with information on that when asked. I had an opportunity to tour the power plant with the Minister and I appreciate that.
I would like to begin with some questions on the Department of Education. You have had a lot of questions and commentary on student financial assistance over the past two years. Problems with cheques arriving late, with the amount, cheques in the mail kind of situation; cheques not coming off the information system. Most of those seem to have worked themselves out now that we have Education, Culture and Employment staff facilitating that. My question to the Minister of Education is on student financial assistance and the accessibility and availability of those cheques. I wonder if the Minister could let us know indeed how that system now is working since that change? Is there any talk of devolving more of the authority of cheque writing into the regions? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.