HALIFAX, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

STANDING COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES

9:00 A.M.

CHAIRMAN

Ms. Becky Kent

MR. CHAIRMAN (Mr. Mat Whynott): Good morning everyone. We're going to get the meeting of the Human Resources Committee underway so I'll call the meeting to order. We'll do a go-round of members and guest presenters here this morning.

[The committee members and witnesses introduced themselves.]

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. I believe Kelly Regan will be coming here shortly, as well as Pam Birdsall, MLA for Lunenburg. Gordie Gosse will be a little bit late today. He's just on his way.

Just to go over the agenda for today, we'll be going through our agency, board and commission appointments. We'll do that quickly and then we'll pass things over to our presenters today, who have given us their presentation on sheets of paper here. Then what we'll probably do is leave about 15 to 20 minutes for agenda-setting procedures at the end of our meeting so that we can be out by 11:00 a.m., as promised.

We're going to move now to appointments to agencies, boards and commissions. I will start with Mr. Morton on the Department of Education, Nova Scotia Agricultural College Foundation.

MR. JIM MORTON: Mr. Chairman, I so move that Steven Harris and Kenneth Peacock be appointed as members of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College Foundation.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there any discussion? Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

Mr. Ramey, I'd ask you to move to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Board of Governors.

MR. GARY RAMEY: Mr. Chairman, I so move that A. Ian Austen and Paul Goodman be appointed as members of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Board of Governors.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there any discussion? Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

I move to Ms. Birdsall for the Department of Finance, Nova Scotia Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation - oh, I'm sorry. I'd like to go to Mr. d'Entremont, he asked to appoint.

HON. CHRISTOPHER D'ENTREMONT: Thank you, and I'll just do one, I'll leave one for Ms. Birdsall as well.

I so move that Réal J. Boudreau be appointed as a member of the Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation of Nova Scotia.

MS. PAM BIRDSALL: Mr. Chairman, I so move that Rod A. Munroe be appointed as a member of the Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation of Nova Scotia.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there any discussion? Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

Now we'll move to Mr. Morton for the Department of Health.

MR. MORTON: Mr. Chairman, I so move that Dr. Daniel O'Brien be appointed as member and chair designate of the Capital District/Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre/Nova Scotia Hospital Health Authority.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there any discussion? Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

Mr. Ramey, the Department of Justice.

MR. RAMEY: Mr. Chairman, I so move that Mr. Henderson Paris be appointed as commissioner of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there any discussion? Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

Ms. Birdsall.

MS. BIRDSALL: Mr. Chairman, I so move that George W. Hudson be appointed as a member of the Law Foundation of Nova Scotia Board of Governors.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there any discussion? Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

Mr. Ramey, Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations.

MR. RAMEY: Mr. Chairman, I so move that the following be appointed to the Nova Scotia Municipal Finance Corporation: Mr. Kevin Malloy as member and chair designate; and Ms. Janet Murphy, Ms. Cathie Osborne and Mr. Byron Rafuse as directors.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there any discussion? Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

Thank you very much. Now we will move things over to our witnesses and we'll give you some time for your presentation. Typically, afterward we have questions from our members and we'll go from there. Thank you very much for coming today.

MS. ANN BLACKWOOD: Thank you. We very much appreciate this opportunity and look forward to telling something about arts education in Nova Scotia and responding to your questions.

Nova Scotia is a leader in arts education and is recognized as such across the country, so we are justly proud of our arts education programs. Far from being frills - it's the uninformed person's think of the arts - we believe that the arts discipline is central to a

balanced program of studies and foundational to the 21^st Century skills that all of our students need.

Arts education is part of the core program, compulsory for all students in Primary to Grade 6. It is one of three groups of electives in junior high, Grades 7, 8 and 9, though many believe that all students need the opportunity to access learning in the arts throughout those grades. At the senior high level there is a graduation requirement for a fine arts credit.

In the last decade we have revised all of our arts education courses and provided what support we can to boards and their schools in terms of implementation. I would like to provide the rest of the time to my colleague, Ardith Haley, who will detail some of our achievements.

[9:15 a.m.]

MS. ARDITH HALEY: Before we start I do want to just add that this is a poster presentation in the arts. As you'll see in our presentation, we are known for being creative and innovative and today, in the absence of the ability to do our presentation electronically, we chose to show you our visuals in this manner and hope that you can see them and that you enjoy the presentation in this way.

I would like you to take a moment and imagine a Primary student that you know, perhaps a family member or someone in your neighbourhood, who entered school in September, just a couple of weeks ago. Think about those couple of questions and consider what life was like 20 years ago and all of the changes that you have witnessed. Imagine what is going to happen in the next 20 years.

This morning we would like to take the opportunity to give you a birds-eye view of how we approach our arts education in Nova Scotia. We believe that a balanced experience involves learning in the arts, learning through the arts and learning about the arts. It's through arts education experiences that students have the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge that they don't get in any other curriculum. It's also a way for students to just show who they really are.

In order for our students to create a vision for the future, it is really important to know where they have come from. We want our students to be able to create a vision for society that's built on strong, rich cultural traditions, but also open to new ideas and understandings.

The arts have been part of the human experience throughout history and they are embedded in our daily life. In short, the arts describe, define and deepen human experiences in ways that are both personal and global, magical and real.

Our arts education courses are comprised of outcomes which are grouped according to the understandings and processes that are common to all four arts disciplines. In all of our courses students are creating works of art, they're making connections on local, global and historical context, and they respond critically to their own art works and to the works of others.

Learning in the arts occurs in classes that are dedicated to the study of these four disciplines. As Ms. Blackwood mentioned, Nova Scotia is one of the few provinces where music instruction is delivered by trained music specialists and we're very proud of that fact. Also, many of our visual arts programs are delivered by specialists as well. In addition, we offer a wide range of courses that provide opportunities for extended learning in the arts.

Students need to have a diverse skill set to be productive in the 21^st Century. They need to be creative, innovative and to express themselves.

AUDIO CLIP: When we create it's great that we can put everybody's ideas into one big idea.

MS. HALEY: Our arts education curriculum addresses these needs. We also know that experiences in the arts nourish independence, confidence, self-expression and the ability to work with others. Research tells us it is not enough to simply listen to music, watch a play, or look at a piece of art. The experience is much more powerful if we do it.

AUDIO CLIP: When I compose music, I like how we can tell our own story and then put it down on paper.

MS. HALEY: Students need to make it, create it, and be part of arts experiences in dynamic and insightful ways. Through the arts, students learn how to take risks and try new ideas. They learn how to dream and how to feel joy.

AUDIO CLIP: When we wrote the piece about Haiti, I felt the emotion of the survivors.

MS. HALEY: Our arts curriculum presents a very contemporary focus on creativity and innovation, which offers really engaging learning opportunities for our students.

AUDIO CLIP: I'm 14 and I can't believe I'm a composer.

MS. HALEY: She's very excited. (Laughter)

Learning through and about the arts often involves experiences with the greater community. To enrich our arts education programming, the Department of Education, along with the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, provides $150,000 to support our

Artists in Schools programs. These programs provide opportunities for professional actors, dancers, writers, musicians and painters to come into the classroom and work with students in Primary to Grade 12. Working together, partnerships are forged whereby students, teachers and artists collaborate on projects that link to curricula in other areas.

This particular image, if you visit the provincial courthouse, you will see this as it is a project that was installed there and was created by junior high students at Elizabeth Sutherland and Cunard Junior High School under the guidance of artist Miro Davis, and it is called Youth on the Radar.

This is another outstanding example - it's beautiful, isn't it? - of learning through the arts. This, again, was a collaborative project and we partnered with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and with artist Miro Davis, again. It involved physics students, chemistry students, ecology students, and visual arts students and they created this absolutely beautiful piece. Students from J.L. Ilsley High School worked on this and we're very happy that this piece, after a long exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, found its permanent home in our department in the minister's boardroom.

This book, 21^st Century Skills - and I'm happy to leave a copy with the chairman - offers a framework to design a contemporary approach to education, one that aims to prepare students to gain the skills and competencies they are going to need to be successful in the knowledge-age economy that they will be part of. The authors suggest that the 21^st Century world of work demands increasingly higher levels of thinking and application, and all of these skills are developed through education in the arts.

The recently published document Nova Scotia CAN, Building the Creative Economy in Nova Scotia suggests that investment in arts and culture would be a creative way of providing an economic stimulus for our economy. It further suggests that we really must embrace creativity as a driving force in the provincial economy and place it at the centre of our economic, community, and business development strategies. That's why in a balanced program of studies, arts education really is core. We really must challenge and inspire excellence in the arts.

Let's return to our opening questions. Students entering school this Fall in Primary will be retiring in the year 2065. We have no idea what the world is going to be like through that course of their careers, but yet we are meant to be educating students to be productive and to be ready for that era. Sir Ken Robinson - he is the author of The Element - claims that creativity is as important in education as literacy.

We know that our arts programs have grown substantially in the last 10 years. We want to ensure that every student in every school has access to high-quality arts experiences. If we truly value the arts, they will be equal to other areas in the curriculum. Equitable time allotment is our goal.

I'll give the final thought to my director. The quote on the slide, she speaks very passionately in support of our arts programs. We are so fortunate to have leaders such as Ms. Blackwood, who defends and supports arts programs in a time when sometimes other priorities have overshadowed the value of arts education and the importance of that. Our programs really have flourished because of the department's deep understanding of the importance of developing in children and in youth, those capacities that will make them productive citizens of the future.

I thought it would be lovely to leave this image with you as we enter our question-and-answer period. This is where it all starts and who knows where it can go from here. These are images from 4- and 5-year-olds.

Also, we have put together a package for you that we'll distribute. I will just show you what's in here. This is for you to take away so that you can consider all of the things that we've said.

In your package, there's a DVD called Create!. Last year, our focus during Education Week was on arts education, so we developed this DVD to celebrate what we've accomplished in arts education in Nova Scotia and where we wish to go in our vision for the future. It has voices of students and teachers throughout and it's a lovely celebration.

We also have in your arts bag a young learners book. Again, this was another partnership that we engaged in with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. It is full of wonderful images of artwork from 4- and 5-year-olds, and it describes the processes and growth of young children and sort of the stages of how they create their artwork.

In 2008 the Minister of Education's report, which is an annual report, focused on - rather than having pictures throughout the document - having student artwork through the document. We were so delighted to be part of this project. The artwork that is showcased in this report is artwork of Grade 7 students who are following our brand new curriculum that we've just introduced in Grades 7, 8 and 9.

We also put a copy of The Creative Economy in your package, which I referred to earlier on. There is a copy of our Arts Education Foundation document. This is the document from which all of our curriculum is framed. It outlines key stage outcomes in the four arts disciplines - music, visual arts, drama and dance - and would provide a good understanding of arts education courses.

There is also a folder - as you can see, they are modelled after our beautiful pull-up posters - in this folder a couple of our partners in the Artists in Schools program sent brochures, Perform! and Debut Atlantic, their season offerings and a DVD of their work. We have a listing of all of the arts education curriculum that we have developed in the last 10

years. These are all courses that are made available to students in our schools, from Primary to Grade 12.

The Artists in Schools programs, to which I referred, we have a brochure that tells you a little bit more about those programs and also a poster. These are distributed to schools and to the community so they will know how to access this programming. We also provided a summary report of last year's activity in the Artists in Schools programs with each of our six programs.

[9:30 a.m.]

Last but not least, we have this lovely collection of note cards. This is a collection of original Primary and Grade One artwork that was collage artwork. The original artwork went home with the students and then they were photocopied and made into note cards for the school to have. You have a lovely little collection of those.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much for that presentation. Now we'll move to questions and answers, questions from the members. First of all I have Ms. Birdsall and then Mr. d'Entremont.

MS. BIRDSALL: Thank you, Ms. Haley, that was very interesting. As a graduate of NSCAD with a Fine Arts Degree in the mid 1970s, and as an art teacher for three years before I set up my own business that I've run for 33 years, I certainly am behind the creative economy. One of the things I wanted to ask was, when Sir Ken Robinson was talking about the pace of the world changing and the real need to nurture creativity, how do you see that specifically working in the community, as far as multimedia and all the technical advances? How is that plugging into our programs?

MS. BLACKWOOD: I think our Public School Program prepares students very well for that economy, not only in the arts but across the curriculum. We have been pleased, as part of our youth pathways and transitions strategy, to introduce some quite innovative courses at the senior high level that are related to a range of careers. They include high-tech courses such as multimedia, and film and video production is another one that has been hugely successful.

One of the things that comes as a surprise to some of our students is that the arts open doors to so many career possibilities, not only in the arts and culture sector but indeed in science and technology. What we hear from sector councils in those industries is that they value students who have had strong learning experiences in the arts because they are creative, they are innovative, and they know how to solve problems and think outside the box. Indeed, they value those skill sets to some extent more than the traditional learning in biology, chemistry and physics. So I think our students have good opportunities in the schools that

can provide some of those options. They learn not only skill sets pertaining to possible career areas, but also the whole vista of possibilities opens up to them.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. d'Entremont.

MR. D'ENTREMONT: Being that I represent a rural area I want to ask the obvious rural question, how's the distribution of programming across the province? I saw a lot of great pictures of band and I know we don't have band in Argyle, for example, or very smaller versions of what I saw in the slide. What is the distribution of that across the province?

MS. BLACKWOOD: I think across the province students have equitable opportunity to learning within the curriculum. I think what you have identified is a challenge in rural areas and low population areas for some of the extracurricular opportunities that are made possible in areas with larger populations. I think to a certain extent our concept behind the Artists in Schools program has allowed such opportunities to travel to those rural areas.

I would not underestimate the power of technology that will allow students not only to network with and communicate with other arts students across the country, and indeed across the world, but also to co-create and indeed perform collaboratively using the power of technology. I do believe that our rural areas are very rich in cultural tradition and I think our arts program really allows students to investigate all of the resources within their community.

One of the things that has been very powerful, in recent years we have developed advanced courses in music and visual arts in both Grades 11 and 12. Students engaged in the advanced courses really have the opportunity to work with an arts mentor in the community. That has been a huge opportunity for students in rural areas, as well as elsewhere because in every community in Nova Scotia, no matter how strong, there are artists and craft persons that have so much to offer in terms of leadership and support and encouragement to young artists in our school system.

MR. D'ENTREMONT: The part two that I have to that very question is - and forgive me a little bit here - there was no francophone mentioned here and I don't see any francophone documentation in here. The majority of the students in my area are going through the francophone school system. I'm just wondering what your connection is with the francophone school board because I'm not seeing any of that in here.

MS. BLACKWOOD: Yes, forgive us for that, we have indeed produced the pamphlets and poster in the French language. The division for which I'm responsible develops curriculum in every subject area, Primary to Grade 12, except those offered in French. There are others at the department who are responsible for the development and implementation of French first-language programming and French second-language programming. That being said, we know that we work very closely with those other

divisions, we share everything that we do and indeed so do they. We have a good opportunity to share what we produce and that provides the opportunity for our colleagues in CSAP to offer similar program options, it's really a matter of translating the documents.

With the introduction of Artists in Schools program, that was a very important aspect to us and we do have francophone artists serving francophone schools. I think that particular dimension of the program has been extremely successful.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Ramey, then Ms. Regan.

MR. RAMEY: Ms. Blackwood and I, our paths have crossed many times over the years. Most people in here - and I haven't met Ms. Haley before, but it's nice to meet you. I have not only been an educator, but I've been a musician all of my life. I have two sons who are both pursuing musical careers, so I have an intense interest in this area.

About 15 years ago I was reading research that came out of universities all over the world: UCLA, University of Konstanz in Germany, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, it was even done in McGill and various universities here. It showed the connection between learning to play keyboard music, learning to read a musical score and parietal temporal development of the brain. What that translates into, of course, is parietal temporal development seems to be conducive to success in the maths and sciences. So it's not a surprise to me that learning to play keyboard music, where all the notes are fractions of whole numbers and all the ways in which the music is produced is based on physics, it wouldn't surprise me that there would be a connection.

I'm sure some of you have seen the poster of - I don't know, it says the world's 200 most successful people or something like that and every one of them, of course, is a musician. Having said that, I don't think everybody has to be a musician to be bright or successful. (Interruption)

However, 12 years ago I met up with an electrical engineer by the name of Jim Mullen and we produced - in the time I was there, anyway - a system to teach keyboard music using computer technology that would work in any computer lab in any classroom. As a result it allowed any student, in a very cost-effective way, to learn to play keyboard music. Since that time, since I've left, this is considered to be the number one music software program in the world. It's used in the U.K., the Royal Conservatory of Music has just sanctioned it and put it in the Bahamas, it's used in the school systems in California now, New York and Chicago. It's also en français, as well, Mr. d'Entremont, it's in English and French and it also exists now, at the request of Yamaha, in Japanese and more recently in German, so it's sold all over the world.

There have been a number of high school principals in our region here, in Nova Scotia, who have requested this software to participate in a pilot study to see if using this

product would actually not only be of benefit in the arts, but would also, perhaps in a longitudinal basis, improve scores in math and science, particularly in math, because I think we just went through a recent episode where we were considered to be a bit lacking both at the elementary and high school levels in math skills.

I know at one point Jim was going to request a pilot, he had some principals interested. I was wondering, has he ever pursued that or has he brought that to you, and where is it or is it something that you're interested in?

MS. BLACKWOOD: I think we are interested in all resources that support student learning. I believe the software program to which you refer was listed in our authorized learning resources perhaps three years ago or so. I'm not sure if that's the same program, but I believe it is, it's certainly available for schools to access.

I think the research project that you proposed is an intriguing one. One consideration for us is that keyboard is not the focus of the curriculum certainly in the elementary years, so you're mentioning senior high perhaps offers other possibilities because it does allow more specialization both within and beyond the curriculum in terms of student independent study.

We do not have the resources to provide this to every school nor do we have the resources to fund such research. I think for you and your partner's proposal to go any further than it has to date there would need to be a funding partner identified. Schools commonly tell us that we have wonderful ideas, but too many of them. I do have to consider schools that say they sometimes feel overwhelmed with the demands placed upon them and that we have many wonderful projects but would we please take a breath and not think of any more for the time being because they're working very hard with those already implemented. We tend to err on the side of caution with the many proposals that the minister receives for various projects and pilots and so on and so forth.

MR. RAMEY: One concern I have with that - and I'll be finished and we'll move on - is that it seems if you catch these kids in the elementary school and you teach them to read this abstract symbol set which we call music, where G and the treble clef are always on the second line no matter what language you speak, it does seem that that is the critical age where those skill sets make a difference in the development of the brain. It also is an innovative technology which also has an artistic bent to it. My concern is that I think Ontario is moving ahead with this and I'd like Nova Scotia to get the credit for it, not Ontario, if it proves that it is quite successful, which I think it already has. Thank you for your answer and I appreciate the time to speak about that.

MS. BLACKWOOD: Just one point of information. One challenge that we have is that while we have a very fine music curriculum, we really allow about an hour a week of instructional time for music and an hour a week for visual arts; contrast that with an hour

every day for some subject areas such as mathematics. It is really a challenge to consider what instructional time is involved to deliver the various dimensions of the program and how much time is actually needed for programs such as the one you've been discussing, not only at school or at home and what challenges the at-home piece presents to families, so thank you.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Ms. Regan.

MS. KELLY REGAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of the joint programs between schools and non-profit organizations, how many of those partnership programs are fully utilized? Does all the money get used up?

MS. BLACKWOOD: Our partners tell us the program has been so successful that they really could serve many more schools if they had the resources to do so. We are confident that the funding which the Department of Education provides goes directly to afford expanded opportunities to schools and their students. Ardith noted that in your package is a report on how many schools and students we were able to serve.

MS. REGAN: So the money does get used up?

MS. BLACKWOOD: Absolutely. One striking example is the Writers in the Schools program, which is sponsored by the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia. They provide access to the program. They give approval for writers to visit the school on a first-come, first-served basis and they have usually distributed all available funding by noon on day one. So we know there are many more opportunities for professional artists to work with schools but, at the same time, for a fairly modest investment I think we've had a huge return on that that is very worthwhile.

[9:45 a.m.]

MS. REGAN: So the Department of Education funds these six programs at $25,000 a year.

MS. BLACKWOOD: Yes, we contribute that annually to their programs. Of course they have other sources of funding.

MS. REGAN: How long have they been at that level, $25,000 a year?

MS. BLACKWOOD: Since 2005-06, I believe. It may be 2006-07. It began in 2005-06. Debut Atlantic is a more recent partner and I think last year was our first year to expand their program access to public schools.

MS. REGAN: Now, is there anywhere in the Department of Education budget that actually helps schools with capital projects that will allow them to have better access to arts programs? I'm thinking of building theatres and things like that, is there any program within the Department of Education that allows for that?

MS. BLACKWOOD: My understanding is that with new school construction projects and, indeed, school renovation projects, that community involvement is an important aspect. I do believe that when theatres, for example, are part of the community's plan then they would look to community funding to support that. Essentially from the Department of Education's point of view, it is what sort of building will provide a safe, supportive, stimulating learning environment for students to access the Public School Program.

There are many things that we support in principle beyond the Public School Program: physical activity beyond physical education, for example, access to not only children and youth in our schools but their families and neighbours to access those facilities. So that's often part of a proposal that a community might move forward. I think the arts would be equally important in that consideration but there is no funding program per se at Education.

MS. REGAN: So while we do fund gyms, we don't fund theatres in schools.

MS. BLACKWOOD: Well, we fund high-quality arts learning spaces. I don't know if you've visited the facilities at Citadel, for example, not far from here, but I think arts teachers would be pretty excited to deliver their programs in a facility of that calibre, although the art teacher told me he could use a little more storage, but other than that.

MS. REGAN: It is a little on the lean side for storage there. I just wanted to make sure I had that correct, that we do gyms but we don't do theatres. Yes, there are specialized rooms for the music programs, for example, at Citadel . . .

MS. BLACKWOOD: And drama spaces.

MS. REGAN: . . . and drama space and art, but there isn't - normally a theatre does not come as part of a high school.

MS. BLACKWOOD: Usually multi-purpose rooms are useful for some sorts of performances and the auditorium in a school is commonly used for other sorts of performances.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Ms. Regan. Mr. Morton.

MR. MORTON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you both for the presentation and for your comments so far. I'd like to take you back just a bit. I think you've already

touched on this to some extent, but it continuously crosses my mind that schools have a very difficult time in thinking about how to actually create that balanced programming that you talked about in the presentation, and trying to understand where arts fit in that course seems to me to be kind of an essential issue.

I was reminded just reading a newspaper account of the election in New Brunswick this morning that almost half - according to the article, and I don't know what the number is in New Brunswick and I can't remember exactly what it is here, but the article suggested that half of the adult population of New Brunswick is functionally illiterate. We have a very large level of functional illiteracy and innumeracy among adults in Nova Scotia. I'm trying to think about how to develop curricula that will create literate individuals and numerate individuals, it seems to be a very high priority. I guess I'm interested in your thinking, notwithstanding Mr. Ramey's comments, about how to create that balance.

I guess maybe the other thought that I might add to this is it seems to me that educators and schools are continuously trying to juggle many courses. I'm just absolutely amazed at the kinds of things that high school students have available to them at this point, but it doesn't seem to contribute to the level of functionality in the sense that is probably required to pursue arts or almost everything else. I was interested in your thinking on that.

MS. BLACKWOOD: We've invested a great deal of time and industry in promoting literacy education beyond the literacy education provided through English language arts and French language arts. We know that there are important opportunities across the curriculum for teachers in any subject area to support student development as readers and writers and speakers and listeners and critical thinkers.

A challenge for the department is how to ensure that all teachers have access to appropriate professional development opportunities in this regard. There is so much you can get out of a one-day workshop, we really need a commitment to multiple opportunities for structured, ongoing learning in relation to literacy.

We have done our best to provide some strong resources in this regard. One of our earlier efforts was a book called Arts Links, for Primary to Grade 6, when we began Active Young Readers for Primary to Grade 6. We helped teachers to see how they could use the illustrative material in books, as well as the print text, to enhance students' multiple literacies. It goes beyond print literacy, visual literacy is so important as well and, of course, media literacy. So the biggest challenge is really how you can ensure that teachers are really at the top of their game in terms of optimizing opportunities.

All schools are required to provide visual arts and music for all students, Primary to Grade 6. We do have a challenge at junior high. We have met it by creating some dynamic new curriculum and course offerings, but often schools must make decisions as to what options they provide in junior high, where schools are required to offer two electives and

students are required to take one at each grade level. That decision often reflects their facility, what facilities they have and what specialist knowledge they have on their school staff. If you have a music teacher, that's an obvious choice; if you don't, perhaps you would be looking at family studies or technology education or visual arts for those electives.

At the senior high school level, you're right, there's a wide range of options, some would argue more choices than students actually need, but we have been diligent in the last decade to try to provide a wide enough range of course options to reflect the very diverse needs in our high schools. They are quite different from those of my generation. We have students in high school now graduating with a Nova Scotia high school graduation diploma who, in another era, would have left school and perhaps been working in some of the resource industries that offered opportunities for a pretty good living in those days, but things are different now so we do need a wide range of options.

In terms of the arts, many schools offer drama at Grade 10 and that sort of satisfies the high school graduation requirement. We do encourage schools to explore the other options because we know that the arts have the power to engage students in quite unique ways. Students whose strengths lie in the arts, whose eyes light up when they have those opportunities, one hour a week in elementary isn't much. A possible gap of three years in junior high can be devastating, and at high school that's probably the most exciting 110 hours of any given grade level.

We are moving to provide some exciting opportunities through on-line learning, we are partnering with the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board, to develop and offer on-line visual arts courses at Grade 10, and on-line visual arts and advanced visual arts at Grades 11 and 12. So we're exploring possibilities.

I think schools have to make hard decisions sometimes, the staff you have reflect the seniority and so on. I think when fiscal times are particularly challenging, you look at the courses you must offer to provide students access to the credits they require to graduate and then you look at what else is possible given your staff and available budget.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Gosse.

MR. GORDON GOSSE: Thank you for coming in today. I'm just going to say that I'm quite familiar with the arts education in my area in Sydney, we have a great teacher in the high school in Maynard Morrison, who's a well-known comedian who teaches at Sydney Academy and is very entertaining for the young people. Again, I followed the program when Gary Walsh started it at the Holy Angels all-girls school and they actually have a great teacher there now, Mr. Michael McPhee. I know sometimes he comes up here with the drama and arts kids to Halifax to do some work around the curriculum he's teaching.

Also, I was very fortunate to attend a play two years ago, put on by the Holy Angels arts program, on the Sydney tar ponds and I was so impressed that night. You talk about facilities, they turned the gymnasium into a disposal site similar to the tar ponds, it was quite interesting to see. I don't know how they got all that stuff in there, it was well worth my time as a father and as a Member of Legislative Assembly, to attend that and watch those students. I saw them grow over the years in that program so much and I also think it does benefit them by staying in school, it broadens their horizons to other things.

Mr. McPhee is quite a talented young man and he also does plays all summer long in the Sydney area downtown, and some of the students who graduate do participate. That programming, like Ken Chisholm is the local guy who writes, they are all involved in that community in the Sydney area, so we're very fortunate to have educators like Mike McPhee and Maynard Morrison and those guys teaching our children. I can really see the benefits and that's all I wanted to say.

I know them quite well and I actually went to their class earlier in the Spring of this year to visit their class while they were teaching. I would advise anybody here to actually go to the schools and watch the teachers at work because it's just amazing, a guy like Maynard Morrison, Mike McPhee and those guys, with all the talent they have, teaching our children these talents, it's just amazing.

That's all I wanted to say. It was a learning experience for myself and on this job sometimes you learn each and every day that you go along, so it was great. Thank you.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Any comments, Ms. Blackwood?

MS. BLACKWOOD: I'd absolutely support everything you said. I think our students in Cape Breton are blessed, some of the teachers have been recognized internationally, as well as nationally. Cape Breton has really demonstrated leadership in the arts, they certainly have been a strong partner in our curriculum development and also the board, despite challenges, has allocated funding to ensure there is leadership and support at the coordinator level for arts education in their schools and that's important too. The arts has its place in Cape Breton and it's not one of many subject areas for which people have shared responsibilities.

I would encourage all of you to support schools in their arts programming, not only the special event of the year, but arts year-long. Teachers appreciate it enormously. Sometimes they feel a little isolated because their job is different, offers different challenges and different benefits, as well, from some of their colleagues. They are so appreciative of community support, as the children and youth are too.

For some students the things that seem to be valued in the school program are quite a narrow range and if that's not where your gifts, talents and strengths lie, you don't

necessarily value the strengths that you have in the arts and maybe those don't even blossom until senior high where you have expanded opportunities. It's really good for all of us to support schools' efforts in this regard and to demonstrate in many ways that the arts are valued, both within our school system and in the community.

[10:00 a.m.]

I think that's especially important when times are difficult. If you study history, during the Depression it was the arts, it was the cultural life of communities that sustained them through very difficult times and that's sometimes the moment when some of the greatest works of art are achieved and become part of our rich heritage. Thank you.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Ms. Regan.

MS. REGAN: We were talking about music programs and I know from having my children in music programs that the kids rent their own instruments. I'm just wondering if there is any program that provides instruments or helps with rental costs for children who come from families who are disadvantaged economically.

MS. BLACKWOOD: I think Ardith can speak to that. I am aware of a national program and we provided information on that to schools a year or so ago. I do know that schools and school communities work diligently to ensure that all students have equitable access to music programs. Just as not all students can afford a hot lunch, not all students can afford a particular musical instrument, particularly the instrument of their choice, so I would commend schools for their efforts. Subtle, but they really do support the arts.

I know there's the Four Cs program, as well, but perhaps you can offer more detail, Ardith.

MS. HALEY: Many of our vibrant band programs have existed through the support of a parent association that recognizes it needs to be available to all students equitably. Actually in most programs throughout the province - the city is a little bit different, the city schools tend to be, and I'm not sure if that's because of access, they are in Halifax where the music stores are, it's a little easier access for people who are able to afford to provide their own instruments - but in many of our outlying areas the band parents have maintained a fleet of instruments that they provide to the student body at a nominal rental rate of $50 per year and, in fact, those fees are waived, as well, when students are unable to provide that. That is understood across the province that if there is a student who wants to be involved in this program, finances should not be the reason that they are not. The communities do work together to ensure that.

MS. REGAN: I grew up in a school board that provided the instruments sort of all the way through, so if your child played an expensive instrument, like say a French horn or

a tuba or even a trombone, I think it just removed another barrier from the students. I just hate to hear of any child who couldn't take music lessons through the school system because they don't have access to an instrument.

MS. HALEY: Yes, and really there are not - I don't think that's happening because there is that support. As Ms. Blackwood mentioned, there are programs and our schools have been very successful in applying. There is a grant that we have provided that schools have applied for and it is a national grant, it is $10,000. Schools have applied for sets of guitars, for sets of world drums, for band instruments. Every year many of our schools are very successful in that application.

MS. REGAN: What's the name of the program?

MS. HALEY: I knew you were going to ask me.

MS. REGAN: That's okay, just send it to me later, I'll give you my card.

MS. HALEY: I absolutely will. It starts with "C" - really, it's gone. In Nova Scotia we have been very successful in those. They always say about music teachers and all of the arts teachers, take away our time and we teach after school; take away our money and we fundraise. We just make these things happen and are very resourceful in making sure that our students do have the opportunities.

MS. REGAN: I'll bet you that if I contacted Nathan Beeler at CPA, he could probably tell me what the name of the program was and he probably has access to it.

MS. HALEY: Yes, Nathan is very skilled in getting resources and he uses his community resources to the utmost, for sure.

MS. REGAN: Would I be able to ask another question?

MR. CHAIRMAN: Sure.

MS. REGAN: I'm just wondering what training or qualifications are required to teach an arts course at the high school level, say an art or drama course.

MS. BLACKWOOD: I think the Nova Scotia Teachers Union would say that teachers are generally qualified to offer many courses. It's a responsibility of the department and especially of school boards to ensure that when new courses are introduced, teachers who are assigned those courses or who express interest in those courses do have access to appropriate training and professional development. So historically, when we introduced drama, we have drama courses at Grades 10 and 11 and theatre arts at Grade 12 now. When we have introduced the curriculum we have funded and provided and worked with partners to offer

professional learning workshops to teachers of drama. It actually opened up a whole new field because while many English language arts or French language arts teachers would have theatre or drama as part of their background, teachers in other subject areas also have some drama background, or have expressed an interest, and been very successful teaching drama.

MS. REGAN: Do you have to have a theatre degree or anything like that to teach it?

MS. BLACKWOOD: I think school boards work very hard to match the teaching assignment to the background qualification of teachers, but in terms of there being a requirement, there is none for drama.

MS. REGAN: Do we know what percentage of high school students participate in elective arts courses?

MS. BLACKWOOD: I don't have those data, we could get those for you. All students are required to earn one fine arts credit for graduation, so we know that every graduating student has at least that one credit. That first fine arts credit is also a prerequisite for a range of course options in Grade 11 and Grade 12 - design, for example, multimedia that I mentioned, film and video. I'm missing one.

MS. HALEY: Cultural industries.

MS. BLACKWOOD: Oh right, cultural industries, Grade 11. Those build on the fine arts credit and we regard those as a second art credit.

I don't have the statistics to back up what I'm about to say, but many students are counselled that they should take biology and chemistry and physics and that will enhance their opportunities for bursaries or scholarships, whether or not they plan post-secondary education and a career in those fields. So sometimes when you visit schools, students will come up and in a confidential tone say, I'd really like to be taking this but my guidance counsellor told me that or my principal or my dad told me I needed to take another language and so on and so forth. That's the ongoing challenge that speaks to the need for us to value the arts and articulate how much we value the arts and how valuable arts credits are to graduates.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you and I believe Mr. Ramey has a question.

MR. RAMEY: It's more of a comment than a question, actually. I have a couple of things, one in relation to what Ms. Regan was talking about with regard to band instruments. Last year the Bridgewater High School music teacher, Adam McConnell, applied for that grant. I, too, cannot remember the name of it but I have all the correspondence on it. He asked me if I would write a letter of support because that does help - any MLA who writes

a letter of support, it's like anybody else who puts it in there - and he received a grant for the instruments.

MS. REGAN: Obviously because you wrote the letter.

MR. RAMEY: The other thing I should mention, too, Adam is a great music teacher, so is Scott Leonard. He won a national award for being the top music teacher in the country last year and you know who Scott is as well. He's the guy who convinced my sons to go into music so I'm really pleased about that and really worried about that at the same time.

You raised an important issue when you were speaking there, and that is the pressure on kids - I guess their parents too - to try to coerce them or convince them to do, with the best of intentions, the right thing in terms of their course choices. That pressure - you've got to take pre-calculus. Well, no you don't, not really.

Most of the things that you need in life, if you are reasonably bright, you can pick up as you need them. You don't have to do it all in that very concentrated period of your life where maybe in Grade 9 - how old are you, 14 or 15 in Grade 9? - trying to make a decision about your future. Of course my own kids, I hope they peak when they're about 38 and not when they're 18, that's not when I want them to be at the top of their game. So there are big pressures to make all these choices. Sometimes I think that because of the pressures, like you mentioned chemistry and biology and physics, all of which I took when I was in school because you took everything in those days and wrote provincial exams on them, that's how ancient I am.

There is a lot of pressure now to make those choices and it's not a criticism of guidance counsellors or anything like that, it's just the fact that sometimes I think when you're trying to make those and you're very young and you have parental pressures and so on, too, and in many cases you have no idea what you want to do - you have ideas about what you think you might want to do - you sometimes can end up with the wrong choices and, if you're lucky, you'll fix that later on.

MS. BLACKWOOD: One of our responsibilities is to help ensure that teachers and students are well informed about the doors that the arts open. Some kids think, well, I can't sing, I can't perform, I don't play an instrument, so I can't work in the music industry; whereas, in fact, there are opportunities for carpenters and electricians and just look at the credits after a film.

MR. RAMEY: Sound recording, sound engineering.

MS. BLACKWOOD: Absolutely, yes. We're hoping to be successful in ensuring students can access that kind of career awareness, not only in the arts courses they take but

across the curriculum as well. I think we've had some success in that regard but then we have much work to do.

MS. HALEY: I remembered, it's called the CARAS grant. Just a little interesting note that is relevant to this conversation, Harvard in Boston has a mandatory requirement for all students, no matter what they're studying - if they're studying architecture, law, it doesn't matter, everyone must graduate with a music credit.

MR. RAMEY: My point again. Absolutely, I agree.

MS. HALEY: They recognize the breadth of skill that is obtained in that with that learning. An interesting little note.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much for coming today. I'll give both you, Ms. Haley and Ms. Blackwood, an opportunity for any final thoughts that you may have.

MS. HALEY: I would like to close with a little quote from Sir Ken. I'm not sure if you can see that, or perhaps you can see that on your slide. I think it's a very perceptive note.

Education in the arts really does create healthy communities and the citizenry will know how to problem solve and be innovative and creative and we're hoping to continue and put our best efforts forward to achieving that.

MS. BLACKWOOD: I would like to thank you for inviting us and for your interest in this particular topic, a terrific opportunity, and we value your support in articulating the value of the arts and connecting with arts and cultural partners to enrich the opportunities that our students have. We value the arts and I hope you'll find a few minutes to view our video because that will really tell you through the voices of our students the power of the arts in their education. Thank you.

MS. HALEY: I'll just draw your attention to the very last slide on the presentation. I put two links to TED talks and Sir Ken Robinson for both of those, but he really does provide a tremendous overview of the value of arts education and just being creative and finding your passion, finding your element, whether it's in the arts or whether it's a firefighter, he provides very compelling arguments. I would encourage you when you have a moment to check those out. Thank you.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. We're going to take a two-minute recess just to allow you to leave and have the members greet you as you leave. I will ask all members to come back because we do have some committee business, so thank you.

[10:14 a.m. The committee recessed.]

[10:19 a.m. The committee reconvened.]

MR. CHAIRMAN: We'll call the meeting back to order, please. We have only a few items on the agenda for committee business: setting the agenda for our witnesses, and the annual report of the committee. We'll move on to agenda setting and witness selection.

We have a list of witnesses from each caucus and what we're going to do, just for folks information, we'll more than likely have a witness in October because, as we all received notice, the House is going back in on October 28^th. The HR Committee will meet on October 26^th; therefore, we'll have a witness. In HR we do kind of a rotation here, so the witness in October will be that of the Liberal caucus and then we will vote on witnesses for the PC caucus as well as the NDP.

We will start with the NDP caucus. We'll rank them so that we get your preferred witness and for some reason, if that witness cannot appear, then we'll go down the list to the second witness. I'll ask the NDP caucus to suggest their two witnesses. Ms. Birdsall.

MS. BIRDSALL: I'd like to put forward the Departments of Justice and Education, the Lighthouse Program, and the Department of Labour and Workforce Development, Community Engagement Project.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is it agreed? The only two that are on there. That will be down the road anyway because the NDP's turn isn't until probably the Spring.

Is it agreed in that order?

It is agreed.

The Liberal caucus, please.

MS. REGAN: The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations would be our first choice and then Early Intervention N.S.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is it agreed?

It is agreed.

The PC caucus, please.

MR. D'ENTREMONT: I think I would like to see Dr. Tim O'Neill pop in and should he not be able to pop in, I think my second choice would be Dr. Colin Dodds and Ray Ivany, in that order.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is it agreed?

It is agreed.

And then we're going to move on to the annual report that was circulated by e-mail at the beginning of the month. There are a few little things that Mr. Morton had looked at, two comments that were received from him. He recommends that we insert our wonderful clerk, Jana Hodgson, thanking her for all of the work that she does in the report.

Is it agreed?

It is agreed.

Mr. Morton also noted that there was a duplication of a name in Appendix A and that has been corrected in Jana's draft copy. He reads it before he goes to bed I think. (Laughter) Also, in addition, the clerk has made one small change and that is the name of Treasury and Policy Board and they have changed that to Treasury Board, just for technical reasons, so the report has been adjusted to reflect this change. Mr. Samson.

HON. MICHEL SAMSON: My only concern having gone through the report is, as you will be well aware - and there's no need to repeat it all here - there was some extensive discussion about the nature of the information provided to this committee when it comes to appointments and some of the questions around there. I know there was correspondence sent from the chairman to the Speaker and that we received from the Speaker, I don't see any of that mentioned in the annual report which I think should be included in there.

We're still waiting for the Speaker to call together a committee meeting to review the rules and practices of this specific committee and I don't see it. If it's in there I certainly look forward to having it pointed out to us, but I think it should certainly be mentioned in the report in light of the extensive discussion that took place on the topic.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Morton.

MR. MORTON: I'd just like to point out, in response to Mr. Samson's comments, each of the meetings refers anyone who looks at the report to the transcript which would contain all of the discussion that occurred at a meeting and references, as well, to any documents we had asked for or were expected to receive.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Samson.

MR. SAMSON: I realize that obviously someone who looks through Hansard would see all of that, but in light of the fact that this is a report meant to highlight some of the main items that were discussed, I certainly believe that specific topic warranted enough discussion

around this committee at numerous meetings that it does deserve mention. The fact that it's still an outstanding issue that we're waiting to have further discussion by another committee, that is why I believe that should be added in our annual report.

MR. CHAIRMAN: I'd like to call in the clerk. She has a point of information for us.

MS. JANA HODGSON (Legislative Committee Clerk): I would like to direct the members to Page ii of the report. At the very beginning of the page in Foreword and Mandate, the very first paragraph addresses the scope of the report. In the past this report has dealt only with two items and that would be the appointments themselves and the witnesses as well. This report was written in the same manner as the previous ones just focusing on those two issues.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Samson.

MR. SAMSON: I'm just looking here, "Second, providing a brief summary of witnesses and topics that came before the Committee . . ." - I would certainly suggest that the mandate of the committee was a topic that was raised on a number of occasions and I certainly appreciate that not all discussion is expected to be put into the report, but in light of the fact there is correspondence on this, it was raised at numerous meetings. As an annual report, I think the whole idea here is that the whole mandate of the committee was brought into question on a number of occasions. That's a matter that's going in front of the Assembly Matters Committee, whenever that is called, which could make significant changes to how this committee operates. I certainly think that warrants being mentioned in this report, that that is a matter that was discussed and that we're still awaiting further direction on that specific question.

MS. HODGSON: Again, I'm just going by the past practices of the committee: the summary of the witnesses and the topics - the topics in relation to the witnesses. That is what was meant and that is what has been done in the past in all the reports.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Samson, would you like a vote on this or would you . . .

MR. SAMSON: Well, I would certainly suggest that - I appreciate what is being said about the past but in this case I don't think we've ever written to the Speaker asking for the Committee on Assembly Matters to review the mandate of the committee so I believe this is a matter that was not brought up before, in my 12 years. While there was discussion, it certainly never went to the point of correspondence and the fact that it's going to be an agenda item to be dealt with by the Committee on Assembly Matters.

I would suggest that we vary from the past reports that were done and that there needs to be a mention, in light of the fact that there could actually be changes to the mandate of this committee, I think it warrants mention in our annual report that this is a matter under discussion as a result of some of the issues that were raised during this past year.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Point taken and I think I'd like to echo what Mr. Morton has said. If anybody would like to take a look at what happened at those committees, transcripts are available, they are available to the public via the Web site of the Legislative Committees Office. Other than that . . .

MR. SAMSON: If that's the case, Mr. Chairman, I guess I would make a motion that there be an item added in the annual report which specifically makes mention of the discussion that took place on numerous occasions regarding the mandate of the committee and the way information is presented to this committee regarding appointments, and that the correspondence both to and from the Speaker be added as part of the annual report as well. I so move.

[10:30 a.m.]

MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there a seconder? Seconded by Mr. d'Entremont.

Are there any questions or comments in regard to the motion? Okay, is everyone clear on the motion?

Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

MR. SAMSON: I think you may want to poll the members, Mr. Chairman. I don't think it was very clear how that vote went.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Would all those against the motion please say Nay.

Are there any other comments on the report? I'd like to ask one of the members to make a motion to approve the Human Resources Annual Report of 2010, as amended by some of the comments that were made earlier.

Ms. Birdsall moved that motion. Do I have a seconder? Seconded by Mr. Morton.

Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

Seeing no other business, the next meeting of the Human Resources Committee is on October 26^th and we will be discussing agency, board and commission appointments, as well as the witness from the Liberal caucus.

A motion to adjourn, please.

MR. D'ENTREMONT: I so move.

MR. CHAIRMAN: We are adjourned.

Thank you very much, have a great day, drive safe.

[The committee adjourned at 10:31 a.m.]