Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m trying to get back into my frame of mind here. I know last night I was really eager to get into questions and comments, but since we left general comments yesterday I just want to open up with a couple of really quick remarks. With this department here, I know the Social Programs committee has had numerous dialogues on so many different topics that it’s really great to see where we are. I feel that all committee and Members really need to do is support and monitor and continue to keep the department accountable with all the work that has been going forward.
In the opening comments yesterday, the Minister did mention that this budget represents over a year of hard work, and committee was in the same room, so we’ve done a lot of hard work. I always recognize the hard work of committee and staff, but I just want to say I acknowledge and appreciate the hard work that the department and your staff has done over the past year, but ever since committee has really gotten into the details of these budgets.
With that said, the work on education renewal, early childhood development, the collaborative work with mental health and addictions and anti-poverty, what wasn’t said in the opening comments yesterday was the Aboriginal student achievements and updates on where we can move on this. Not a big deal, but I know we’re working on bigger things.
The first area I’m going to go on to is early childhood development. There were a lot of good questions discussed yesterday. We didn’t get into wraparound services. We tried passing a motion on the daycares, and there was mention of junior kindergarten and some concerns with that. What we’ve been hearing is that it is a three-year process
and our first target is getting into the small communities that really need that.
Maybe I can just make some references to this action plan here. You have in here… I had all these stats yesterday. I can’t find them. But you have them here, numerous areas of action. I know the action plan is between the Department of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment. Are these areas of action in priority from one to the very last one is 22? Are they areas of action and you’re going to go one and continue down the line, or are you just taking actions where and when you can address them? Thank you, Mr. Chair.