Mr. Speaker, when we’re back home visiting and talking to people, they bring many issues to our attention. While on the campaign trail, we heard many issues.
One of the issues I heard from a lot of people, Mr. Speaker, was about day care subsidies and the lack of day care spaces. We have a lot of people out there, and I was talking to a couple. One is going to school and the other is working. And it was almost impossible and very expensive for them to keep their child in day care — almost $900 per month per child. You don’t get a discount for the second child.
We ask people out there to…. These people try to contribute to the N.W.T. They try and work. And we, unintentionally, send a lot of people the wrong message. Subsidies that we provide, I believe, are intended well. But we do, I believe, send a message sometimes that you are better off staying at home. We have heard it from a few people.
Subsidies were meant to help get these people back on their feet, not put their feet up and watch TV while other people are working, struggling with day care costs and having to come up with the money for day care.
I look at the money this government spends. These people are not asking you to pay the full amount. What they want is something that is equal, right across the board. These people pay their taxes. They pay into the system. All they are asking for is a bit of a break, some help, because they will continue to contribute because that is the way they are.
I see us spending money: $235,000 we want to spend on an area at a correctional centre; we want to spend $540,000 on a fence; I see $4.5 million in contracts that are leaving the N.W.T. All this money could be used to help a lot of these folks with their day care subsidies. They are not asking for handouts, Mr. Speaker. They pay into the system, and they want the system to treat them fairly.
