Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister. This has been a very, very long time coming. We are four years now, well, not quite four years, but we’re three and a half years anyway from when the commitment was made. This was supposed to be completed in 2013. We’re now in 2015.

I’d like to know from the Minister why has it taken so long for this to get started, because I gather it hasn’t even yet started.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Transportation. About a year ago I asked the Minister of Transportation some questions and they were based on a commitment from the previous Minister of Transportation, a commitment he made in December of 2011, and I need to ask those questions again. The questions are around the review or analysis or a comprehensive review of the Deh Cho Bridge.

My first question to the Minister is: What is the status of the review, the analysis, the comprehensive investigation of the bridge project?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That was my last question, but I have to comment that if we think that remediating the environmental liabilities sites is important, then I would urge the department to request funding to make sure it gets done.

Thanks for the explanation. It seems a little strange that the department is required to do work and doesn’t have any funding for it. Is this something that is minimal to no cost, or you’re overfunded and we don’t need to give you money for liability assessments? It just seems strange to me that if there’s work that the department has to do that there’s not an amount earmarked in the budget. Can I get a guesstimate of how much might be spent on environmental assessments in any one year?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note the last line of the text on page 354 says that this section is also responsible for coordinating MACA’s responsibilities for environmental liabilities. I thought that those environmental liabilities came either under Lands or under ENR, so could I get an explanation of what MACA’s responsibilities are under for, or under environmental liabilities?

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am hearing from residents that are involved in day homes and daycares that I don’t think they’ve heard from the department to provide input into this review.

I would again ask the Minister if he would commit to provide me at a later date a list of the people that have been contacted to provide input into the early childhood program review.

To the Minister: Part of the review, as I understand it, was to look at the review, to review child care costs for parents and to particularly look at the impact that child care has on their cost of living and so on.

I’d like to ask the Minister, is that part of the review that either has gone on or is going on? Will the review be looking at costs of child care for parents? Thank you.

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...