Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will deliver the 2010 Ontario budget tomorrow at about 4 p.m. The Ontario Association of Career Colleges will be there for the lockup. OACC will comb through the budget and prepare a news blast to send to members about its contents. Watch your inbox for an e-mail with budget highlights tomorrow afternoon.

In related news, a Post Provincial Budget Breakfast will be happening on Friday, March 26 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Delta Hotel in Kitchener. John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, will present an overview of the 2010 Ontario Budget and how it will impact the Kitchener-Waterloo Region. Tickets are $25 for members of the Greater KW Chamber of Commerce and $40 for general admission. Learn more by clicking here.

The OACC Executive Committee attended the Canadian Club in Toronto on Monday to hear John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, speak about Ontario’s post secondary education system. During the reception held just prior to his speech, the OACC Executive had an opportunity to speak briefly with Minister Milloy, Senior Policy Advisors from the Minister’s office and former Training, Colleges and Universities Ministers Mary Anne Chambers and Chris Bentley.

In his speech, Milloy outlined the results of Reaching Higher, a 5-year, $6.2-million plan introduced in 2005 to transform the province’s PSE sector. There are 100,000 more students in Ontario’s PSE system since Reaching Higher was launched.

Minister Milloy also directly highlighted the contributions of the private career college sector. Despite the fact that the event was sponsored by Colleges Ontario and the Council of Canadian Universities, Milloy spoke to the great work done by career colleges.

“There’s another group with us today that also does important work in training and education and I want to recognize the representatives from the private career college sector and acknowledge the important contribution that they make to the system,” said Milloy. “Many of you will be surprised to know this, but Ontario is home to over 400 private career colleges. These colleges offer vocational training to about 30,000 students in 70 communities across the province.”

Milloy also made mention of the role PCCs are playing in delivering the Second Career program.

“By the end of March, our public and private colleges will have welcomed 28,000 laid-off workers through our new Second Career retraining program,” he added.

Click here to read Minister Milloy’s speaking notes.