R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in our agreement with the federal government, we've agreed to use the funding from them to reduce the cost of childcare by on average 50 percent. And we understand that the cost of childcare varies depending on what people are charging. There is a number built into the federal agreement which so we can handle a 2.3 percent increase and not have to take from any other pots of money. The timing is not great right now because as the Member mentioned, the price of everything is going up. We're seeing, you know, inflation like we haven't seen before. So what we are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there was a discussion paper. It was sent out. And this was on the income assistance program of which this would be you know, we were trying to extract a certain segment of that program and design a different program for them. So that was public. There was online surveys that could be done. There were paper surveys. We've reached out to a number of current and former income assistance clients as well as NGOs, Indigenous governments. So that has happened. There is a summary, "what we heard" report in the works, and I expect that to be coming out in the near...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, I can't give a solid answer. We we would have liked I would have liked to get this done this term. I've said that many times. I can't I can't lie about that. But the fact is that everyone was preoccupied for a couple years and not just the government but Indigenous governments. And when we out to just discuss this topic, it was clear that everyone wanted to be involved. There had to be a significant level of involvement from from teachers, from Indigenous governments, from, you know, different organizations. And so because of that and because of the...

Thank you. And ECE does support communities, including community governments, so that includes Indigenous governments, in those communities to develop their community labour market development plans. And those contain a lot of information that I know we talked a lot today about why we need information to make decisions. And that also allows us to provide funding based on those decisions.

I will say we're also working with the Housing Corporation to better utilize the trades persons that are employed by the Housing Corporation and the LHOs. This is something that the Minister and I had been...

Thank you. So there has been some work that has been done already. Each department is pulling together its own information and then the working group will look at that and amalgamate it and the departments have been putting that information together. If they're not already sharing that with each other and starting that work, it will be happening quite soon. There have been some changes that have been made through based on the discussions, so. One of the changes is the communities who have the community labour market development plans will be eligible for multiyear funding through the Small...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 48, Arbitration Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I've said that many times that we're not going to build a new headquarters, we have one, so why bother. However, I will say that we obviously need infrastructure in all the communities. In Yellowknife, you wouldn't know there was a university there was a college here. You know, it's you kind of have to know where it is to know that it even exists. And we have a real housing there's a real housing shortage here as well, and so we need to ensure that there's adequate facilities here. Of course, as the Member points out, Breynat Hall is one of our priorities for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have five positions. Three are staffed. I have a text telling me which positions are not staffed but I can't scroll to it at this moment. I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker, but I can get the Member that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so what the facilities plan is you know, it's essentially a capital plan but it's where it's longterm. You need to look at all of the campuses as well as the community learning centres, and we want to make sure that we're starting from a place we want to make sure we have a plan from the getgo and that ensures we want to ensure everything is integrated, everything works together. And I actually just had my first meeting with the contractors who are have been going out and speaking with the communities and Indigenous governments and the college to do this work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And this has been raised a number of times. And no, we are not going to be exploring those avenues. There has been a desire from some people to have us subsidize more than just licensed centres, so unlicensed centres or family members, but unfortunately we can't be everything to everyone and we have to pick our lane. And so what we're focusing on is early licensed early learning childcare spaces. Thank you.