Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to second this motion. Residents in my communities are supportive of junior kindergarten, and the more and more I learn about how we’re going to implement and the need for early childhood education workers is a critical component of junior kindergarten. Right now, I don’t know how many early childhood education workers we have that we can integrate into the Junior Kindergarten Program, and that’s what this motion speaks about, about getting them involved, getting them involved early. There’s something to be said about teachers not being prepared for early childhood years, which is the four-year-olds in junior kindergarten, and I certainly see that need for early childhood education workers.
The motion, in the paragraph “now therefore I move,” indicates that we want early childhood education workers for every junior kindergarten group before the program is implemented. I have issues with that, because that motion would say to government stop everything unless there are early childhood workers. I know that the resources aren’t there. The Minister did speak in the House that there is a commitment to get early childhood education workers, and perhaps in his rebuttal he can address that, but for now, I believe that the motion is too strong and might delay implementation of the junior kindergarten. Our communities are looking forward to it.
With that, I’d like to move an amendment to the motion.