Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I speak on a huge priority for our people, the critical need to give our children the best possible start in life through an excellent early childhood education.
As I noted last year, a UNICEF study ranked Canada last among 25 affluent countries in the delivery of early childhood education and child care programs for its failure to meet nine out of 10 basic performance benchmarks. The NWT did not even meet one of the standards. All evidence overwhelmingly supports the observation of Canada’s chief public health officer who states that one dollar invested in the early years saves between three and nine dollars in future spending in the health and criminal justice systems as well as on social assistance.
Mr. Speaker, I am the first to recognize that important improvements in levels and supply of services have been achieved by this government since my last statement on this. However, basic problems still persist. There simply aren’t enough affordable child care spaces staffed by qualified caregivers. The problem is bad in our major centres and worse in our smaller communities.
We now fund child care providers on the basis of three-month attendance figures, which is better than monthly but still falls short of basing funds on annual attendance for predictable planning. Child care workers remain among the lowest paid of our skilled workers, making it difficult or impossible to hire and keep competent staff. We need to subsidize the wages of child care staff to meet this critical need.
Programs offered to train more child care providers simply don’t measure up to the programs offered in the South. The lack of adequate daycare not only affects children’s prospects of success but prevents parents from taking the employment or getting the education that will improve the overall lives of their families. Such facts reveal why a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy is needed and why we need to address disparities in child care services and access. They present yet another factor to be considered in our review of the Child and Family Services Act. I will be pressing this case in committee and call on all Members to consider this preventative priority as we move towards setting our operational budgets in the upcoming season.
Let’s wisely invest more in our future: our youngest citizens with such huge potential. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
