I think, developing some occupational competencies, when we develop this, is going to be very handy not only for this government but it will set the future for our educators. Yesterday I was really hoping I would be able to get through all my questions and answers in the 10 minutes.
I’m a strong supporter of where the department is going. However, I’ve come to realize that this page alone, education and culture, is 79 percent of the overall ECE budget, so there will definitely be a lot of questions. If you look further, it’s 15 percent of
the overall budget that we’re going to be approving within this government. I’m looking at the time and I’m going to have to be put back on the rotation here.
Sticking with early childhood development, I would like to ask the Minister in commitment number six where they are looking to address the infrastructure challenges in the small communities, under one of the deliverables it mentions, “To ensure infrastructure is adequate for junior kindergarten in schools.” Seeing as we’re going to be going into our first year of junior kindergarten, has this deliverable been addressed already? Has it been identified? Do we know what the needs are and the inventory? What are the needs moving forward, so we can make sure that when we roll out this junior kindergarten we aren’t stuck with challenges where the infrastructure is not there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.