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Decentralized Democracy

Hon. Jill Dunlop

  • MPP
  • Member of Provincial Parliament
  • Simcoe North
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Ontario
  • Unit 9 575 West St. S Orillia, Ontario L3V 7N6
  • tel: 705-326-324
  • fax: 705-326-9579
  • Jill.Dunlop@pc.ola.org

  • Government Page

Thank you to the member for that question. As I said before, we can always do more. I am meeting with the Indigenous institutes coming up shortly, where we’ll be consulting on what more we can be doing. The blue-ribbon panel did address some of the issues that Indigenous institutions are facing, and that’s why we have decided to specifically consult with all the institutions together on what more we can be doing on campus.

Indigenous institutes are very important in the communities, important for accessible education for First Nations learners, but also, they’re an economic driver for communities. Ensuring that they do offer the program that is needed for local labour market needs—so addressing the needs of learners being close to home, but also the needs of the local labour market, ensuring that those students are rolling right into jobs.

I look forward to consulting with the First Nation institutes to ensure that we can be doing more to support those institutions.

We have had the chance to visit. Actually, I had mentioned earlier about the welding program. I remember that programming was funded specifically through the associate minister of women’s economic empowerment, a specific fund that was set up for students as well as the institution that provided all the wraparound supports for those students. That included things like associated costs of transportation and daycare. It was really setting these women up for success. They were working with mentors as well. In the welding situation, they were entering into programs that are highly male-dominated and setting those women up for success.

I appreciate the work that Six Nations is doing, as well as all of our institutes in Ontario, setting students up for success.

To your comment about the blue-ribbon panel: The panel also stated that it was a shared responsibility of students, of institutions and of the government. The government stepped up. We did our part. We provided $1.3 billion in new funding for the sector. But to help institutions, we also provided the efficiency fund of $15 million so that they can apply directly to the fund to be able to do those audits. The shared responsibility for the students—we didn’t see a tuition increase as the panel had suggested as being something that we were interested in doing. We want to ensure affordability for students and—

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