Mr. Speaker, I want to provide a personal explanation to this House today about the matter of the termination of the associate deputy minister of post-secondary education renewal.
Media reporting yesterday gave the impression that I was not consulted by the Premier on the decision to terminate the employment of the former associate DM. I want to state clearly that this was not the case.
The fact is over the last number of months I have had a number of discussions with the Premier's office regarding the management of Aurora College and the Aurora College transformation team. Two weeks ago, I approached the Premier and expressed my belief that a change needed to happen, and it needed to happen sooner than later.
While I was not personally involved in the negotiations that took place following that discussion, nor was I aware of the final details of the arrangements, I was certainly aware of the ultimate outcome and support the Premier in her decision.
I want to assure Members that Cabinet believes firmly in being accountable to the public for its decisions, but there is a fine line between being accountable and ensuring that we respect the dignity and privacy of our public servants.
We will make every effort to communicate openly about what is happening in departments, but we have to be sure that we do not say anything uncomplimentary or unprofessional in public.
As a result, we cannot and should not be discussing individual public servants in the Legislative Assembly or in the media, and I will not be commenting further on this matter in public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.