Caroline Cochrane

Mr. Speaker, this government is committed to ensuring that the people of the Northwest Territories have access to a wealth of high-quality post-secondary education opportunities. Educated citizens are critical to a healthy northern society and a strong and prosperous economy. Our government is acting on the 18th Assembly's mandate priorities to expand opportunities for post-secondary education, trades-oriented learning, and northern educational institutions, and to foster the knowledge economy.

Mr. Speaker, we have developed the territory's first-ever overarching post-secondary education...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two people in the education field, Ms. Suzette Montreuil with the Commission scolaire, and also Ms. Josee Clermont with the College nordique. I do want to say that, College nordique, we have had many meetings working with them on advancing our post-secondary education. It has been very, very good. I am hoping that the next Assembly will carry forward the great work. By working together, we provide a better education. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. As a mother, even as a social worker, I think I would advocate to maintain that as it is. There are a lot of people. We do want people licensed. The ideal world would have licensed family care homes. We have grandmothers, and we have mothers, and we have like people, our sisters and stuff who are providing really good care. That means to me, as a mother and as a woman, that we need to be flexible in how we do that, so we don't penalize people for being unlicensed, but we do have additional support and financial support for people that are licensed. Anyone out there who is not licensed and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is funding available, and we are trying to get people to know that, so I am glad to actually answer that on the floor. We have start-up funding, and it goes up to, I believe, about $25,000 just for starting their business up, and then we have health and safety funding on top of that. That is up to $10,000, and that is for making sure that you have the proper things, fire extinguishers, et cetera, that you need to actually provide services in a daycare.

We will work with any daycare provider that wants to be licensed. We need more, and we will provide whatever...

Mr. Speaker, the early years, from birth to age five, are among the most critical for a child's development. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment recognizes the need to support safe and high-quality early learning environments for children to grow into healthy adults and fulfill their potential as capable people.

We know that parents and caregivers have the greatest responsibility and influence on their children's development. An effective and integrated early childhood system that provides the necessary services, supports, and resources to families with young children is...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Supporting Access to Child Care in the NWT 2019-2020 Supplementary Action Plan." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Absolutely, yes. We want daycare providers in every community. Fort McPherson does have the Aboriginal Head Start currently, but it is only a couple of hours every day and it's not enough. One of the big things we need to do, though, in every community, because every community is different, is find out how many children might be interested. That's the critical question. Does it make sense to open up a centre if you've only got two or three kids in a community who might want daycare, or does it make sense to promote a licensed family home? We are more than willing to go in to work with their...

Although we continue to face challenges in this area, I know that the work done during this Assembly will have a lasting positive impact. We have increased rates for all licensed spaces, from infant to preschool, increased the number of early childhood scholarships up to 30 this year from 10 and remodelled our funding programs for licensed early childhood programs.

The supporting access to childcare action plan outlines our way forward. It addresses challenges and suggests solutions to meet childcare needs across the territory. We are focusing on community-driven programs, increasing available...

The small community employment fund is actually one of the successes of this government, in my opinion. It is actually putting money into the communities based on where the community thinks that it would be most appropriate. I can't stand here and say what successful projects are, because, in my opinion, every single community is a successful project because that community has defined where they want that funding to go.

One thing I would like to say, though, and I have said it to the communities that I have had access to, is that most of the applications that I have noticed coming in for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within Education, Culture and Employment, there is no direct funding for signage for trails. However, the good thing about consensus government and the departments is we do try to work together, so I have spoken to my colleague with Infrastructure. There is actually funding within Infrastructure, probably within the community access program, that can be utilized. We are more than willing to work with the MLA if he would like some more information on that.