Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to comment on the state of day care in the NWT. During our discussions over the last few weeks, many Members have expressed concern about the lack of day care in our communities. Some communities are unfortunate enough to have absolutely none. There is a number of issues that plague our day cares in the NWT: low wages for workers, lack of funding for day cares, lack of adequate labour force, lack of affordable day care, staff recruitment and retention issues. The list could go on for a long time.

In the NWT, we do have programs to assist day cares either to help them get established or subsidies to help them stay in operation. Those programs are appreciated, Mr. Speaker, but they are not adequate and they do not provide the level and the quality of day care that our territory needs.

Recently, the Yellowknife Day Care closed its doors for a day due to extreme staff shortages. As a result, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment advised the day care that the number of children using the facility had to be reduced until staffing levels could be increased. The day care chose to implement a schedule denying children access to day care one day at a time on a rotating basis. That decision certainly makes sense from a safety point of view, but under the current ECE subsidy program, this creates a huge difficulty for the day care. The daily per child subsidy supplied by ECE is based on whether or not the child is in attendance. It has nothing to do with whether the child is a full or part-time subscriber. If the child is sick, stays home with Mom or Dad to get better and does not go to the day care for the day, the day care does not get the $12 subsidy for that child.

It seems a rather cumbersome way to provide program funding and day cares must have great difficulty tracking and reporting child attendance, not to mention the cost to administer the system at the ECE end of things.

To quote a constituent regarding the recent YK closure: “On November 22nd, my son could not attend day care, along with 10 other children. There were other children every day of that week who could not attend and this process will continue until more staff are hired. On November 22nd, because those 11 children were not at the day care, the GNWT subsidy was reduced considerably." I see I’m running out of time, Mr. Speaker. May I have unanimous consent to conclude my statement?

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. The GNWT subsidy was reduced considerably. Whether or not a child is sick, whether or not the children are away at Christmas visiting grandparents, the day care must still maintain their operation and the expenses that go with it: heat, power, water, building maintenance, staffing and so on. The way the subsidy is currently applied makes no sense and it hampers the effective operation of the day care. It seems to me, and to many parents who need to use the day care for their children, that ECE needs to change their subsidy program. A consistent level of funding is necessary to ensure consistent operation of day cares. I will be asking some questions of the Minister of ECE during question period. Thank you.

---Applause