Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to thank the Minister for his detailed opening remarks.
In looking at the budget, I am happy to see a number of things in there. I am happy to see the increase in support for the arts, lots of information on early childhood development schools, official languages. Overall, I am quite pleased with what I see, but there are still some areas of concern.
One of the areas of concern that I have is that in looking at the document, it appears that the number of staff within the department itself is going up by
seven positions, yet I am of the understanding that at least five people in the department have been notified that their jobs are affected and that they potentially are going to be laid off. So when it comes question period, I am going to be trying to seek some clarification and some better understanding of that.
The other area, the area that I have the most concern about, is similar to an area of concern that I had when it came to the Department of Health and Social Services. It is around the fact that the department provides the authorities with a whole lot of money. I haven’t heard the same types of statements such as “live within your means” within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, but we have been hearing rumours and information out of the authorities, not necessarily from the authorities themselves but certainly employees and whatnot, that there are cuts and major changes to programs which may affect staff. I will be trying to get some clarity around that, finding out what kind of impacts the budget being provided to the authorities is actually going to have.
I also notice that it looks like there are a large number of teaching positions in the authorities disappearing, and I am going to be seeking some clarification and some understanding around that. I was under the impression that we weren’t actually doing too much in the way of reductions in the boards themselves. So similar to Health, I am going to have some questions around what’s going on in the boards and how this budget and these reductions are going to impact on the authority level.
Otherwise, I am quite happy with what I see. I do have some questions about positions. I am really happy to see some increased investment in the arts. We will have some questions on the Childcare Subsidy stuff as well as on the daycare stuff, but otherwise it seems good, and I’m mostly happy with what I see. Thank you very much.