Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I talked about the importance of a well-run daycare and the great job that the dedicated staff and parents are doing in daycares in Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. Today I’d like to talk about the infrastructure needs for these daycares.
Last spring the community of Lutselk’e came up with a community education plan and called for a coordinated effort for the school and community to work towards an integrated education system and identified a suitable location in the community. The plan calls for an education-type complex to have a new Aurora College, a daycare, and a preschool connected to the existing school. Today there is no space for the daycare in the school, and grades 10, 11 and possibly 12 are held in the old library.
In Fort Resolution the daycare operates out of an old building. To meet code requirements the building has to be renovated and has been renovated numerous times over the years. The building is still cold and is plagued with furnace and plumbing problems, and there are no heating vents on one side of the building and no ventilation fans anywhere in the building.
As you can see, both communities in Tu Nedhe are desperate for the need of immediate support to meet its daycare infrastructure needs. I speak of this today because the GNWT has a responsibility to ensure communities have adequate early childhood development programs. As a matter of fact, in the department’s 2006-2007 Early Childhood Development Report, the vision states the Northwest Territories will be a place where children are born healthy and raised in safe and respectful families and communities.
If this is a vision of the early childhood development, then why does Lutselk’e have no facility to house a daycare program? Why do children in Fort Resolution have to go to a daycare that is cold and always has mechanical problems? Something needs to be done as soon as possible.
Under the NWT Child Care Act standards and regulations the GNWT has the responsibility to ensure compliance with the act and regulations to ensure daycare facilities provide a safe, nurturing environment and this includes compliance with fire and safety codes in these daycares. Again, I will ask for the daycare staff in Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution, something is not working there.
