Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a little hard to be short when the Minister is questioning the value of this analysis. This was a P3 project which went from a P3 project to not a P3 project which was fraught with problems and cost us all kinds of money.

To the Minister: It’s not the value of the bridge itself, it’s looking at the process and the process that broke down and determining why it broke down and what we can do to make it better. Why will he not consider that instead of the value of the bridge? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for his comments. It was on February 13, 2014, when I asked the Minister whether or not the work on the bridge was completed, and his answer: “There is no further outstanding work to complete the bridge.” I’m a little surprised to hear that now there are deficiencies and we can’t start this analysis, this investigation, one that was supposed to be completed almost two years ago now.

To the Minister: He says now we have deficiencies and maybe then we’re going to start this retrospective analysis. When can we expect results from this analysis?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my honour to rise today to recognize and pay tribute to a Yellowknife pioneer, a true Northerner in spirit and action. Barb Bromley passed away on February 15th here in Yellowknife. She’s been described as a pillar of the community, and our community is leaning due to the loss of that pillar.

As we’ve heard, Mrs. Bromley came north in 1948 and never left. Her life’s work was nursing, and as Yellowknife developed and grew, she advanced public health nursing services in Yellowknife and beyond. She was instrumental in starting the NWT Registered Nurses’ Association and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last question here. Can I ask the department, over time we’re going to get more and more closed sites and sites that need to be remediated, so is it the intention of the department to put money into their budget to fund environmental liability assessments?

Thanks to Mr. Williams. Where is the money for this environmental liability work? Where does it show up in the budget?

The best would be a licenced facility with required certified early childhood educators and a mandated curriculum, but the NWT has no standards. Day homes do not have to have certified early childhood educators on staff, nor does the Department of ECE require the use of an approved curriculum. That’s not the case in other NWT ECE programs.

As part of the education renewal project, the Department of ECE has advised that the Early Childhood Development Action Plan includes a review of funding and governance for ECD programs. Part of that review is supposed to evaluate child care costs for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016. We want to continue with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and, time permitting, Municipal and Community Affairs and the Department of Lands. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for the information on that completion date. I guess since the daycare operators, day home operators were advised that this would be done in October and now the Minister has just said it’s going to be completed in March, I’d like to know why there was a delay. I would also like to know from the Minister if he can provide me with a list of the daycare and day home operators who have been contacted for input into the review.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and I want to follow up on my statement and talk a little bit about daycare and subsidies and funding for daycares.

Late last fall the Department of Education undertook a review of the Early Childhood Program, and they advised licenced daycares and day homes last August that they would be undertaking this review and that they would want to get these day homes and daycares involved.

I’d like to ask the Minister right now… Sorry, the review was to be completed in October. So, I’d like to ask the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s Education Week, so it’s very timely to have a theme day today on education.

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment is currently pursuing many initiatives. Education Renewal and Early Childhood Development, ECD, are just two of them. ECD generally encompasses the education and care provided for two- to four-year-olds. In the NWT it means licenced daycares, preschools, junior kindergarten and the Aboriginal Head Start program. Using that definition, about 70 percent of NWT two- to four-year-olds attend an Early Childhood Development Program.

That’s pretty...