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.

Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation does not have the financial ability to respond should they be called upon by the banks for recovery of the loan for any reason and that the Government of the Northwest Territories would be the responsible party financially to the banks. I believe that’s a portion of Mrs. Groenewegen’s point of order. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, instruments, schedules, declarations, call them what you will: this House would like to see those before they are signed, rather than after.

I’m asking the Premier: will he provide those for our review before they are signed? Thank you very much.

Thank you, again, to the Minister.

Just a last question here. If the department has recently worked with a company on other contracts, even — and perhaps especially — if it’s a southern contractor, would that contractor be given preference in bidding for new work or in a competition for new work? Would the department favour that company just because they’ve been working with them recently?

Mr. Speaker, there have been serious concerns raised to me by my constituents about contracting by MACA. I’d like to, without being specific to the project or anything — although it may be, theoretically — explore the policy of the department.

Let’s see. How to put this? Taking as an example a bundled water treatment call for proposal — a very large contract, obviously — does MACA have a policy to support Northern contractors over southern contractors when the Northern contract bid is competitive or the low bid and they have a proven track record? Of course, their Northern residency would be...