Bob Bromley

Mr. Chair, thanks to the deputy minister for that information. What positions do we have that are dedicated to early childhood development in this department? Are they currently filled? Thank you.

That’s a very good point the Minister makes. I have seen the government do strange things, but I would agree that’s a logical position to take. I’m with the Minister on that and I do want to agree with his earlier comment in response to our general comments that this is something that cannot wait. I’ll leave it at that. I know this is a capable Minister who’s going to nail down those capital dollars. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to just follow up a little bit. I appreciated the information the Minister shared on planning for infrastructure improvements to Stanton Territorial Hospital. I am concerned, though. He started to talk about the next steps and then stopped short of that, but he did reference that the next step after the schematics would be to enter into the capital planning process. I believe there’s an understanding that that’s typically a five-year process which, of course, is alarming to a lot of people across the Northwest Territories. Has there been any discussion yet? Does...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to welcome the Grade 4 class and especially recognize an extraordinary young lady, Ms. Rae Panayi. I would as well like to recognize a fiddler extraordinaire, Mr. Cameron Bond.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thought I’d indicated I had one more. I don’t hear a response to whether or not our one ECD position is staffed currently in the department.

Great information there. In terms of the less professional side of the equation, which is, of course, the seat of much of our early childhood development opportunities dealing with the public and community groups and young parents and other ways, parenting skills and whatnot that may be delivered by non-government organizations, is there a mechanism for the department to interact with them or is that left to the regional authorities? Thank you.

As a priority and recognizing the considerable amount of new information that’s available now – and the deputy minister referred to a really excellent report by Dr. Corriveau that does incorporate a lot of that information in a popular format -- is the department playing a role getting that information to authorities and helping them identify the opportunities in early childhood?

Mr. Chair, just before my next question, does the Minister agree that early childhood development is a major opportunity and responsibility that we have, given our new considerable and new enlightening knowledge in terms of our prevention priorities in terms of health and many other broad government goals?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see here the page deals with maternal and child health, so I am assuming that early childhood development is one of the responsibilities within this program. What role is the department playing? What new programs are being put in place for early childhood development recognizing the priority that this government is putting on that this year? What role is the department playing in working with sister departments on the broader early childhood development programming?

The extensive communications and discussions in the House and in committee that we’ve had over the past five years have meant nothing in terms of carving a niche for planning infrastructure dollars on an expedited basis as opposed to another five-year process. Is that the Minister’s understanding? There have been no discussions in Cabinet about that? Thank you.