Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker; I was worried you missed me.

Mr. Speaker, I guess I'm so old I remember MACA managing the land, so I'll redirect the exact same questions to the Minister of ECC which I'll give him a moment because it looks like he's ready. But I can repeat the question in case he needs me to repeat it. That said, the question was about the block land transfers to municipalities, and I've heard in particular that there's been some challenges in the Yellowknife transfer. Can he bring this House up to speed as to what is being done and what he can do to ensure that we have timely and...

In essence, was the program going to relaunch itself, or did it take some intervention from the Minister to relaunch it?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm wondering if the Minister of MACA could give us an update as to the municipal land transfers that they were supposed to be working on for the last year. I thought that we're only making minor headway in some places, in particular Yellowknife. What is actually happening with block land transfers? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the reason I ask for a meeting of the minds so one-off deals aren't happening, Mr. Speaker, or some daycares are being told what they want to hear but then another being told elsewhere.

Mr. Speaker, in short, they're losing employees because the grid is controlling their funding and the daycares are facing closure, probably by summer. I had asked three of them, and they were saying that's the right timeframe; we're going to run out of money. So, Mr. Speaker, when programs are being cut, outings are being cut, food is being cut, what can the Minister do to stop that tragedy? Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Raising the childcare issue is an interesting one, especially because we're getting e-mails real time here at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, my question back to the Minister is what -- or sorry, my question to the Minister with respect to the overall bigger picture of the issue here is what type of ability does the Minister have to reset the wage grids within the regulations as currently designed? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I'm asking the Minister would she convene an immediate meeting and host a discussion with them about trying to solve their financial challenges, because right now they cannot afford to keep their doors open any longer, people are turning jobs down in the Northwest Territories because they know there are no spots, and they're losing employees to other jobs because they cannot pay them outside of the wage grid. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister call for an immediate discussion with these people? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First I want to start off by recognizing the Mildred Hall pages. Mildred Hall is the school in the downtown of Yellowknife, and it's a wonderful school. I send both of my kids there. And the attendees of our pages from that school today are Jackson Gorman and Tyrell Cook-Gargan is a constituent of mine. As well as I'll follow the Member from Deh Cho's lead, I wish to also recognize one particular translator. She happens to be my favorite, and coincidentally a constituent, so I'm not saying that they're tied together, but Ms. Sarah Cleary. She is one of my favorite...

Well, there's a couple problems, Mr. Speaker. One is it's the grid that's the problem and the fact that it's setting a floor but also a ceiling in some cases. So it depends on where you're sitting, Mr. Speaker.

I'm asking the Minister because the money -- the funding is tied also to the grid, the funding each daycare gets, this negatively impacts those who have had different scales and are told to maintain them at the upper scales so the funding gap then starts to widen. Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister do to address the funding gap that is caused directly by this grid. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister keeps avoiding the question by saying how nice she is by saying I meet with this person and -- sure, that's great. But it's time to get the people in the room so you can hear their one major concern, the grid, and the grid it controls them, and it leads to the funding problem that they're facing.

Mr. Speaker, I ask again would the Minister call a meeting on behalf of -- or with all the daycares and their executive directors to sit down and get their one ask, help them with the wage grid? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to follow up on my statement which is my concerns about how daycares are paid -- or sorry, structurally paid through the grid formula created by the Department of ECE; and furthermore, Mr. Speaker, the challenge, of course, is that when a person with ten years of experience is paid less than a summer student, or even a grocery clerk, we have to start asking ourselves who are we serving in that particular thing.

Mr. Speaker, my question specifically to the Minister of education comes down to this: Given the immediacy of the urgency of the...