Bob Bromley

I appreciate the comments of the Minister. Most of the programs he mentioned, perhaps almost all, were focused on children in school. Really, what we’re learning is that so much of this potential takes place before children are school-aged. So I’m particularly interested in getting elders together with the very young.

In my time in communities, I see a lot of elders looking for something to do, in a way, especially when they are unable to be as physically active as they may have been before. This seems like a huge opportunity.

What programs are we pursuing, or will the Minister commit to, that...

Mr. Speaker, during the earliest years of brain development, the potential for learning can be most fully established. I'd like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: how does our current allocation of resources reflect the huge opportunity we have to be effective by focussing strongly on the very young?

Today I’d like to talk about the awesome brain.

I know this House is all for healthy families and vibrant communities. I’ve recently learned about brain development in the young child. I realize there are implications and opportunities for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of many of our government programs.

I would like to share some of the researchers’ new insights on the brain. At birth there are over 100 billion brain cells, or building blocks, that make up our brain. They are especially designed for communicating among themselves across the spaces between them. Communication...

The other point that I know is of concern is that our early childhood workers often don’t meet the educational standards, particularly the federal standards they are coming out with. The Aurora College programs are currently not producing qualified child care workers. I would like to hear what the Minister is doing on this and any reinvestment-type opportunities he sees with respect to any of these questions I have asked.

I know a big focus and a big interest of this government — and of myself, personally — is cultural and language diversity. Languages, of course, hold the cultures and hold different ways of knowing. We know now that language development takes place especially early in life. That’s when we get hard-wired for it, and we have the ability thereafter to speak it. But we need to have a lot of exposure early in life.

What programs do we have that actually get our most proficient language speakers together with our very young? Are we supporting our elders and those who can speak these languages most...

As a government we need to work with young families to increase the awareness of when and how these brain connections are made. Let’s use this knowledge to guide our support of early childhood development programs, language nests, and parenting and family support.

Let us, as leaders in this government, have the vision to increase awareness and provide the programs to ensure that our children’s brains grow to their full potential. They are our future. Thank you. Mahsi.

No further supplementaries.

Mr. Speaker, you know, I wish we were talking about a $40 million, $60 million or $80 million project here, but we’re not even talking about a $160 million project. The latest is $240 million, what our final costs will be, and those are without any of the liabilities that we are likely to experience.

Mr. Speaker, all Members of this House have been elected by the people, and to me that means the people of the Northwest Territories have invested their trust in me as their representative, and I think that’s true for every Member in this House.

Will the Premier start to trust the Members of this...

Mr. Speaker, continuing on with the feeding frenzy here because there's so much food in the water, because there are so many questions to be asked, I'd like to ask a question about the concession agreement. I've been one of the privileged few to have had the opportunity to see an embargoed copy of it as a Member of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure.

I understand from earlier questions today that the Premier, the Minister of Finance, will be signing the schedules that are attached to the concession agreement by the 22nd of this month. As to an attachment to the...

Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister.

Another question along those lines: before such a call for a proposal goes out and is decided, would the Minister’s department officials, when discussing such potential work with the communities that might be interested in it, typically refrain from identifying any one company as having the solution for the work to be done?