Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think Ms. Bisaro has set the tone and I do agree with the Minister, we do have a process for 99 percent of the stuff that we do and we’ve got an optional process for the other 1 percent. I think that’s what the issue is here. If we do have a process, we need to follow that process.
I believe when it comes to spending money there are no shades of gray, there’s just white or black, especially dealing with public funds. If it’s our own piggybank or our own money then that’s a different story. But when it comes to public funds, I believe there is no option. The rules are designed specifically for all parties to adhere to. There’s a process in place. So when you look at the appropriation that we’re approving now, after the fact, with respect to this $375,000 for Junior Kindergarten, I can equally say that we have actually embarked on the Junior Kindergarten program without even doing the changes to the act itself to allow Junior Kindergarten to even go forward. We know that’s coming down the road. Really, when you think about this, we have put the cart before the horse on many different levels, both from an operational point of view of Junior Kindergarten, not to mention the physical changes that were required for the number of schools that we are launching it in. I am really disappointed.
Again, to echo what we have already heard, there was no notice of this happening. We found out as we prepared for the business planning cycle a couple of weeks ago, and yet we knew the renovations would have had to have been approved during the summer months to allow the school season to start. Again, there is a huge gap in communication. That element of surprise is showing itself once again in this appropriation document, even though we are hearing that, well, we don’t intend to do this, but we recognize that things are moving fast and we have to move quickly because, God forbid, we don’t want the wheels on the bus to fall off here. Clearly, once again I state, Mr. Chair, we have got optional programs here, it is a pick and choose program at the whim of Cabinet.
I am going to leave it at that. I think Ms. Bisaro did a fine job of bringing it to light and I just wanted to add a little bit of my opinion to the subject.
With respect to this $375,000, my concern is, is this new money that we’re appropriating or is this
money that was used from surplus, from DEAs, DECs or school boards? Thank you.