Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order.

Yes, I will be happy to see that and I see that commitment, too, in your response. Is there funding identified for developing the full response that will be provided in the fall session? Is that part of the funding that is here or is there specific funding for that, or is that just part of the department’s general funding here? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today on one of my highest priorities, which is the need to give our children the best start in life both for their own sakes and for the good of our society.

In Canada it’s estimated that the loss of physical and intellectual development in childhood will reduce our economic productivity by 20 percent over the next 60 years. That toll of missed opportunity accumulates one child at a time. It can only be worse in the NWT, where poor access to childcare, rates of household poverty, and all the sad indicators of difficult lives are much higher.

Getting...

Question is being called.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Committee, we’re on page 10-17, activity summary, Education, Culture and Employment, education and culture, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. A couple of things. First of all, I am wondering, I spoke earlier in the House, and the Minister did, about what our actual need is for child care spaces and particularly for infants, but certainly for all child care needs territory-wide. I believe the Minister is going to work on that, but I just want to stress that this would be a useful statistic to have and to help evaluate how this program is going. We are doing some good work to build on this program and I am very happy to see this. It is time that we started to have some good evaluation happening and one thing...

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Jacobson, do you have a motion? Go forward.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Another, hopefully, quick question here. I see the TSC chargebacks have increased by somewhat over 50 percent and I’m just wondering if that’s a one-time thing, if there’s an explanation for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Minister Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. If there are no more general comments, I will go to the Minister for a response to the general comments. Minister Lafferty.

Thank you Mr. Krutko. Minister Lafferty.