My question related more to the security of information. It wasn’t an Auditor General’s report recommendation; it was from the Information and Privacy Commissioner. There was a concern on her part that not only Education but every department isn’t necessarily securing their data as well as they should. To that, to the security of data within the department, could the Minister make some comment? Thank you.

We are monitoring ATIP requests on a weekly basis. The ATIP, there is a guideline and criteria that’s in place. We are following through on that. That is my understanding from my department on dealing with those requests that are coming in. Mahsi.

Thank you. Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask a question on the Anti-Poverty Strategy development. Am I correct in assuming that currently, as that development is taking place in the planning and so on, that is being conducted by the directorate of ECE in terms of organizing the steering committee and so on? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We will go to Ms. Iatridis.

Thank you for that information. Just to confirm then, any budget associated with that effort would occur in the Department of the Executive and there isn’t one in Education, Culture and Employment at this time. If that’s the case, that’s all the questions I have on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Iatridis. No further questions. Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, directorate and administration, operations expenditure summary, $10.296 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Page 10-14, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, directorate and administration, active positions. Are there any questions? Being none, page 10-17, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, education and culture, operations expenditure summary, $192.575 million. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of program delivery details on here that I had questions in regards to. The first one, obviously, is with the Early Childhood Development Program. Back in 2010-11 we were funding it more than what was asked, and 2011-12 it was at $7.208 million, and this year again nothing has changed and yet the Minister continues to speak about how important early childhood development is, and we’re waiting on some of those infrastructure and programs to help our communities and our early childhood succeed.

With this put in the budget, would the Minister be able to look at possibly looking for other ways to increase that funding so we can see some more programs in early childhood development? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chairman, we have identified the funds in there right now as it is. We are pursuing with the Early Childhood Development Framework. It’s not only our department, it’s with the Department of Health and Social Services and we’re talking about the centres in the regions and having a pilot project in two of the communities. We’ve identified funds already which may not be covered in here, but we feel that

it’s important to pursue with the Early Childhood Development Initiative. So we’re doing what we can within our department to find the funds to cover the two centres that we talked about as part of the recommendations brought forward. So it is important to us and they may not be increasing the actual budget, but this is the budget that we’re faced with with our fiscal restraints as well.

So, Mr. Chair, we just have to be creative and innovative within our department. Mahsi.

With the funding that he said that they’ve allocated but it’s not directly in this budget line, where is that extra money? Which line can we find that in? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

When we talk about some areas that we could identify some funds so we can improve let’s say the child and family centres, if we can allocate the funding then we identify those from the different pots of funds.

Within Education, Culture and Employment, the almost $300 million budget, as you can see there is so many different pots that we can access from. There are areas that may not be exhausted all at once and then we can certainly access those areas of funding. So those are some of the discussions that we’ve been having within my department, because I told my department that this is important and we need to do this, let’s find the funds. So that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi.

Thank you. I just want to make a comment that the Minister did say that there were those projects coming forward and they’re not particularly in this fund, that they’re in another line item. Now he’s saying he has to look for those funds. So I just want to put that for the record, that he’s looking and that it’s not actually there.

I know some of my other colleagues have some questions that they’d like to ask as well. I just want to put the importance of the Early Childhood Development Program and if we start focusing some of our dollars there, you see four lines down the inclusive schooling and we’re putting $26 million, almost $27 million into that. That’s a lot of dollars out of this budget for an issue that affects all of our schools in all of our communities dealing with students that might have some learning disabilities, and if we just redirect some of those dollars into early childhood development it should cut down the costs of this budget line item of inclusive schooling in the years to come. I mean, the sooner we do it, the sooner we will start to see those results.

It’s just more of a comment, Mr. Chair. I do have some other questions, but I’ll leave a little bit of room for my colleagues to ask those questions. So more of a comment, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. We’ll go to the Minister if he’d like to reply. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Yes, the $26 million, it’s a lot of money, but it’s going strictly to the school boards, as well, and if we need to make those drastic changes, I need to work with the school boards. We’re talking about positions as well. It’s not only programming. So the teachers, the special needs teachers and support staff and so forth at the community level and at the regional level. So it does have a potential impact. But at the same time I understand where the Member is coming from, where maybe we can utilize some of those funds towards early childhood. That may be something that we’ve discussed before and an area that we can possibly look at as well. So it is up for discussion and it’s been brought forward before. So we can discuss that further. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Moving in my questions, I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I have a number of questions as well on this page. Obviously, we’re talking a great deal of money here. So I’d like to just follow up first on that early childhood aspect.

I want to say first off that we have, as a committee, had some good discussions with the Minister and we’re looking forward to developing opportunities in the early childhood area. I think the Minister understands our interest from this side of the House and the priority we’re placing on it.

Just reading the description, the activity description, Mr. Chair, the early childhood and school services division provides direction, standards, supports, as well as program and curriculum development for children from early childhood through to Grade 12 completion. That’s such a massive effort. As the research comes in and understanding improves, we realize that there are significant aspects of early childhood that are really more of a health focus and yet ECE is the lead. I would suggest that they’re starting to realize the importance of this and I’m sure they’ll be a good lead, but can I get confirmation that the Minister understands and supports that statement that during the prenatal through to the time when the children enter the school system, be it preschool or whatever, that there’s a real health and social service focus required?

I’ll just add to that, that I completely agree with the Minister’s description of that earlier, the focus is on the parents. I’ve just learned, I don’t know if the Minister happened to catch the CBC radio program the other night, but I can put him in touch with that, it was a whole hour on this program in Harlem about baby college. They literally go out on the street and encourage any pregnant woman or parent with a stroller to attend baby college for nine

Saturday mornings. They’re having amazing results.

But let me start with can I get the Minister’s confirmation of similar understanding? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I believe there is a common understanding that all of these specified items have been integrated into our discussion with the ASA, Early Childhood Development Framework and even a couple weeks ago we had the agencies that came out to talk specifically on ages zero to three with more emphasis on that. So those are areas that we’ll continue to integrate into our programming, whether it be Early Childhood Development Framework or ASA, Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, because that also captures early childhood development within that as well. Mahsi.

So I know the Minister is interested in getting going with some things this fiscal year. Is the Minister able to confirm what those programs will be at this time?