Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll try to keep my comments as brief as I can. The department, of course, is the second largest in this budget and we’re seeing schools and, at the same time, languages and also training and income support initiatives. So, overall, I think the main concern that I express is the status of some initiatives. In particular the Junior Kindergarten initiative, perhaps if you could maybe term it JK versus Aboriginal Head Start program. I understand that that’s going forward, but I understand there have been some concerns in terms of how it is that that program would go ahead. I look forward to trying to understand the status of how that’s going and how those two initiatives could work together.
The other matter that I wanted to highlight is the JK and the Aboriginal Head Start initiative are likely one of a few steps that could be made in terms of trying to clear the disparity between how our students in the small communities perform in terms of their achievements versus students from the larger centres. That too is something that I’d like to perhaps see if there are any advancements being made to try to make the situation better so students in smaller communities could fare well in terms of their achievement tests.
In terms of languages, we all know that the language use is declining. The greater question is: Well, what are we doing now to address it? I mean, a common question more likely asked and I’d like to understand how it is the department is going to advance language initiatives.
Last but not least, I know a part of the language initiative is to support NCS and CKLB. I know CKLB, at this point, has downgraded their services,
staff have been cut back in terms of working at the station and the programming has been affected. How is this department, through the Minister, been trying to remedy that matter and get CKLB back on the air? I’d like to know that too.
There are some communities that are trying to make advances towards working in the forest industry, and I think through Education, Culture and Employment training is an element that I think is key, and I’d like to know how this department will work in that area to help communities prepare their workers to be involved with forest initiatives.
Those are just some brief comments and some questions that I wanted to ask. Mahsi.