As Minister of Learning, he introduced changes to reduce by two-thirds the number of elected school boards in the province while creating new school councils to better involve parents in the education process. The NDP's finance and governance reforms also included changes to the Foundation Operating Grant formulae to put greater emphasis on equity of per-pupil funding. To assist in implementing these large reforms and in response to public criticism that the reforms would result in an acceleration of small rural school closures, he ordered a moratorium on all school closures for a three-year period. The reforms were criticised by the opposition but have remained in place despite the change in government following the 2007 general election.