The $20 million question

Children and Family Development Minister Tom Christensen says the provincial government has "notionally allocated" $20 million toward the construction of its promised autism education and research centre. In a scrum just before this morning's cabinet meeting, Minister Christensen stated, "It's a throne speech commitment. And it's certainly within the responsibilities of MCFD. And it's something I know there's some good discussions going on about. But we're really waiting to hear back from the community about them fleshing out the idea, in terms of where it might go." In fact, said Minister Christensen, "It's not part of MCFD's budget. What we've looked at is the potential capital cost of a project. But it really does need to be fleshed out. It's very early days in terms of what the project might be." Yesterday, Public Eye exclusively reported on hotel and spa owners Sergio and Wendy Cocchia involvement with the centre.