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“We are continuing to move forward with our commitment to provide provincewide consultations through our recently opened online submissions, online survey and telephone town halls,” Iafelice wrote. “The Ministry of Education will compile and analyze the data, and the findings will be used to shape our work going forward.”

Toronto MPP Marit Stiles, the NDP education critic at Queen’s Park, said she’s disappointed by Thompson’s failure to communicate.

“She’s been ducking the media for so long – it’s crazy – that’s obviously their strategy,” Stiles said. “She needs to be available to media. It’s one of the ways people in province know what is happening.”

Avoiding the media, Stiles said, leaves “people wondering what they are trying to hide.”

“I won’t deny I’m skeptical that she is interested in what people have to say,” Stiles said, citing delays, lack of communication and last-minute information. “I question whether the minister wants meaningful consultation.”

Stiles said information about a phone town hall meeting Friday in Northwestern Ontario was released on the Ministry of Education website only one day prior.

“It gave people four hours to register,” she said.

The Progressive Conservatives have said they also plan to develop something they are calling a first – a “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Stiles said when asked what she knew about the initiative. “Nobody knows what they are talking about.”