Thank you, Mr. Chair. The certificate course that the college would be offering would be transferable because they get accredited through southern universities just like the Teacher Education Program.
In respect to the question of when would it be feasible to have our own early childhood diploma courses offered or post-secondary degrees, I think a couple years ago we did the cost-benefit analysis of what it will cost for the college to offer this training program. I believe it came in somewhere around $750,000 to $1 million to offer the course. The issue was also to do with not enough people having expressed an interest in taking the course because the wages for early childhood educators are typically quite below what you would make in other professions. Therefore, some of the actions in the Early Childhood Action Plan drive to incent people to get in the profession, and one way of starting that was through the wage subsidy that has been successfully implemented now through the Early Childhood Action Plan as well as starting with the dual credit course to create some interest amongst Northerners to get into early childhood education. Thank you, Mr. Chair.