GTA This Month

GTA: With the high cost of tuition fees, how are the children of working-class immigrants to afford higher education when even students from well-off families have a hard time paying for school?

Min. Wynne: Since we’ve been in office, we have changed the rules around the Ontario Students Assistance Program (OSAP). We’ve put in place grants for the first time in many years. There were no grants when we came into office, there were only loans. There are now grants for students who are in the lowest 10% of the population in terms of socio-economic status. So a student living in poverty actually will be able to get money to go to school without having to pay that money back. So that’s a huge change from when we came into office. We have made changes in the student assistance program so that families can qualify. And yes, students who go on to post-secondary and get loan do have to pay that back but we’re trying to make those loan repayments more manageable for students and we will continue to do that.

GTA: Many immigrant parents come to Canada with a lot of education but no work opportunities. Is your Ministry going to look at retraining programs that can allow for those holding professional qualifications to eventually return to their area of expertise with an adequate period of time?

Min. Wynne: We have put bridging programs in place, whether it’s for professional engineers or medical doctors, and teachers. What a bridging program does is it helps people who come with a particular qualification to get their credentials and at the same time give them some Ontario experience so they start to build the network and be able to get a job. We’ve also changed the law; we’ve put in place Bill 124 which is the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act. This Act sets up a fairness commissioner. It requires that the colleges, which regulate particular professions make sure that their rules and regulations are fair. If the perception is that they’re not fair, or someone feels that they’re not fair, the fairness commissioner, Jean Augustine, the first Ontario Fairness Commissioner, will determine whether the particular college is practicing fairly. So we’ve changed the law, we’ve put money into bridging programs. We’ve also re-negotiated a new immigration agreement with the federal government. Ontario's 2005 agreement with the federal government (Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement) increased funding by $920 million over 5 years, taking our per immigrant funding from $819 to $3400 over the course of the agreement. That brought us to effective parity with Quebec, which was receiving $3800 per immigrant at the time. Now, Ontario is closer to the Quebec amount. What’s important about that is that we now have that money to put into settlement services. There are more settlement services in Ontario for newcomers and that means that there are more newcomers who will get ESL programs and who will have support to get into the work force. We know that it’s important that in the first six months those supports be put in place. Those are some things we have done and we really want Ontario to be a model of pluralism for the world. We have an opportunity here to make that the case and it’s certainly the vision I support for this province and for this country.

GTA: In your speech entitled “Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges Conference for Internationally Trained Individuals” on February 2004, you talked about the investment of $4 Million announced by the former minister Chambers over the three years to strengthen the programs for internationally trained individuals, such as the Career Bridge program. It’s been 3 years, since 2004, where are we now in these programs? Has that investment achieved the goal it was meant for?

Min.Wynne: If you’re looking for the specific outcomes of that program, I don’t have those specific numbers. It’s the Min. of Training, Colleges and Universities that would be able to give you those specific numbers but what I can tell you is that we continue to build those programs. Those program haven’t been ended, they’ve been increased. I think that from my ministry, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to help all our students, new immigrants and others to find a pathway to work or to post-secondary education that will allow them to take part. There are many children who come from other countries and they need settlement supports and programs to help them to get into the workforce as well. So we’re doing that from the education side, and from the Min. of Training, Colleges and Universities’ side. Those programs have been increased. One of the programs we’ve put in place is a coop program with the Ontario government that allows students in our high schools to have a job in the Ontario government in different ministries and help them get the idea of whether they want to work in the government. It’s a very useful work program that gives students a high school credit.

GTA: What is the one thing about you that the public doesn’t know and you feel they would be interested to know?

Min.Wynne: I’m a runner. I’ve run two marathons and I try to run a number of times a week in the morning and I try to run 5km and 10km races during the summer. It clears my mind and allows me to think about things I need to think about. I even run in this winter weather. I don’t know if you saw the article this morning about getting outside in the winter and the air. I just feel I need the air in the winter because I’m inside so much, so I run in the morning. So that’s something people might not know about me. (Minister Wynne has three grown children, Chris, Jessie and Maggie who are living, working and studying in Ontario. She has lived in North Toronto for over 25 years, where she and her partner Jane are both active in the community).

GTA: Which aspect of your career do you consider to be the most challenging and what gives you the most fulfillment?

Min.Wynne: Well, I think what I find the most challenging about being a politician is when people come with concerns and who are worried about something or they need something and I can’t always meet their needs. My inclination is to want to help everyone who comes through my door. We do try to help everyone who contacts us but I can’t always solve their problems. So I think that’s the most challenging. It’s interesting when I go to grade 5 classes to talk about government and children often ask me that question and that’s the hardest part of my job.

The most rewarding, I would have to say as the Minister of Education is having the opportunity to go into schools and to talk with students, teachers, education assistants, caretakers, principals, and parent groups - everybody who’s involved with the school and hear what’s really going on from their perspective. You know there is so much optimism and goodwill in education that it really is very satisfying and it fills my desire to making the system better.

GTA: What legacy do you wish to leave as the Minister of Education for this province?

Min. Wynne: I would like, if we could, to get to the point where every young family in Ontario, when they’re thinking about putting their first child into school, that they automatically and happily choose the publicly funded education system because it’s the best option. That is my goal. So that when you’re putting that 3 yr old or 4 yr old into school, you don’t think twice about the publicly-funded education system because that’s the best it can be. That would be my optimal goal. I think part of my, and our government’s legacy, is to have brought a new energy to education in Ontario because I think when we came into office in 2003, people in the education system were very demoralized. People were very worried about publicly-funded education, so we are in the process of energizing the system and helping the people who work in our education system, the children and the families to feel that there is a real sense of possibility and aspiration. So we’ll get to my goal someday, but in the process we have to continue to energize the education system.

GTA: Considering the number of drop-outs in school, if you were to speak to the whole student body in the school system, what words of inspiration would you say to them for them to stay in school and ensure their academic success?

Min. Wynne: I guess I would say, “you can do anything you want, you can live your dream’, and that’s true. But if a child is feeling some despair or feeling frustration, they might not be able to see that so what I would say to kids is, what are the things that you are interested in right now or what are the things that make you feel satisfied and make you feel enthusiastic and try to find those things. Try to get involved in those things because I think there are a lot of students who finish high school or finish school because they were interested in the basketball team, or they were interested in the music club, or they were involved in playing chess. There are all sorts of things that go on in school that are outside of the classroom. There are a lot of kids too who are interested in English class, or history class, but whatever it is, whether it is being involved in student politics or the environmental club or whatever it is that makes you feel interested, try to find that thing and be involved. If it doesn’t exist in your school then find some other kids who are interested and work with a teacher and create it because sometimes kids don’t know that they can be the people to start things. They can take initiative, so if you know what you’re interested in and if it doesn’t exist in your school, work with teachers, work with other kids to make that happen. If it does exist in your school, try to find the energy to get involved in that thing because that will keep you motivated to stay in school. So, I think I would say to kids, you can do whatever you want. Hold on to your dreams.

GTA: What words of wisdom and encouragement would you say to our immigrant population who are still struggling to find jobs and establish themselves in Canada?

Min. Wynne: I‘m going to advise parents first. A word of advice to parents who come to this country and who have their children in school is to get involved with your children’s school. If you can find a way, even if you don’t want to go to school council meetings or you don’t want to sit through those kinds of things or you’re not interested in those formal things, find a way to go on a field trip, or take part in an activity on a Saturday or in an evening. If you can get involved in your children’s school, you will have a better idea of how they’re doing. You’ll get to know their teachers and that will help your child. I think that’s a really important thing that parents can do especially parents who come from another country because getting involved with the school will also help the family understand other parts of the society because the school is a window to other aspects of the culture.

Words of advice to new immigrants in general, I guess, because I’m the minister of education, I see things through that education lens. I would tell them to find ways to be involved in the community if you can. I’m not an immigrant so I’m not the best person on a personal level to be able to give that kind of advice, but I think that for new immigrants, being involved with people from your own community gives new immigrants strength and allows them to bridge. Find ways to reach out to parts of the community. The school can be a place where you can do that because when you get involved with your children’s lives, you are all of a sudden are involved with people from different backgrounds and you get to know the whole community in a way which is difficult otherwise, so come out and join things. That can be hard especially in the middle of winter. Get a warm coat, warm boots, as this has been quite a winter. Taking part in those activities either in school or in the community are really important activities.

Just to say a final thing because you have a very multicultural audience, I think the issue of pluralism is extremely important and we need to do a better job. I believe in helping the children from all other backgrounds, making sure that all of the children who live in Ontario feel that they are part of the school system, they see themselves reflected, and they feel that they can take ownership of the publicly-funded education system. No matter what the child’s color of skin, language or family configuration or gender, or whatever, all those children need to feel safe and secure and that they are part of the publicly-funded education system.

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‘Profile of the Month’ is a regular feature of immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds who share their stories about their struggles and successes as they establish their lives in Canada. Through this feature, readers can relate with their own experiences, learn from their stories and hopefully, inspire those still struggling to make it in Canada. How about you? Do you have a story to tell or know someone who does? Send an email to leah.espineda@gtathismonth.com and share your story.

Joining Leah Espineda, our regular writer for ‘Profile of the Month’, is Dessy Pavlova who is a Professional Writing student at York University, who aspires to become a world-renown author and publisher, based on a steady business plan, and past successes as a writer. Her hobbies and habits tend to include poetry, novels, music, dancing, and story-telling.