Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment did a Minister’s statement on advanced education initiatives, but really, is this really advanced? Do we continue to put residents through the education system only at the end to have to put more money to get them back to a standard of education even to get them ready for post-secondary job education?
This government has the opportunity to invest in the future of a new generation of healthy, educated adults and teenagers. What I’m referring to is the Early Childhood Development Framework, and I made a statement here in the House not too long ago about past reports and reports getting shelved with no action.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in regard to the Early Childhood Development Framework, I believe there was a 2001 Early Childhood Development Framework and Action Plan and I do understand that there’s joint work between the Department of Health and Education. I want to know what is the update on this framework, and when can we expect to see a final draft of that framework brought to this Assembly for implementation and action. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that we need to educate our people across the Northwest Territories to the best of our ability as the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Education and that’s what we’re doing. Also, we’re heavily focused on the early childhood development. As the Member indicated earlier, there was a 2001 Early Childhood Development Framework that we’ve embarked on to have a renewal.
We are quite unique compared with other jurisdictions where we want to join forces with the Department of Health and Social Services. My colleague Minister Beaulieu and I had discussed the next step, what can we do to renew? We need to reach out to the communities and regions, the whole Northwest Territories, to hear their perspectives. That’s what we’ll be embarking on.
Starting next month there will be engagement with the communities, the experts, and also the end of January is going to be when we will be having those experts from early childhood to hear their input, the program managers and so forth. From there we want to table a document in the House during the February session. That’s the overall plan to have our engagement by the two departments throughout the Northwest Territories prior to that. We will be keeping the Members informed of our progress.
In regard to the 2001 Early Childhood Development Framework Strategy and Plan, I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment what the current validity is on the work that was done in that plan and what was successful about that plan. Have any of those action items actually been implemented within the last few governments, I guess? The 2001 plan.
The 2001 Early Childhood Development Strategic Plan has been implemented since then. There have been various initiatives in play. We have Dr. Corriveau leading the administrative discussions with various partners in the Northwest Territories. Some of those initiatives are ongoing since 2001. As you know, this is a long-term initiative. Some have been accomplished successfully. We want to hear from the experts themselves what they want us to focus on. There have been some programs in place that may not have worked in the past. How can we improve in those areas and so forth?
I can provide a detailed list of the things that we have accomplished over the years, since 2001 until today, that have been very successful. I will be providing those to the Members.
Early childhood development is a priority of this 17th Legislative Assembly or I wouldn’t be bringing it here on the floor as something that we bring up every time we come into the House and ask questions of the Minister.
What are the current action items that the Minister is currently doing or having implemented in the Northwest Territories, especially in the small communities that are having an impact on early childhood development and the investment in our youth, and not just waiting for this plan to implement and do these actions?
When we talk about early childhood development, there are all kinds of programs within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We are also working closely with the Department of Health and Social Services because they do have a framework of programs that deals with zero to three years of age and so forth. Within our Education department, we deal, also, with the college to deliver the certification programs and others, the immersion programs that we have initiated in several of the communities. Those are just some of the examples that have been very successful to date. We will continue to push that forward. I can provide some of the initiatives that we are embarking on. In the February session there will be more opportunity to discuss as we start implementing that programming.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of living in the Northwest Territories, we have a high cost of living, we have a high turnover rate in the communities. In Inuvik, for example, some of the programs have been defaulted or delayed due to the fact that sometimes we don’t have any qualified staff in those positions, as well as having up-to-standard building codes. That was specifically mentioned in the Auditor General’s report. There are a lot of challenges.
What is the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment doing to address these challenges so that we can continue to deliver those early childhood programs and services to people in the Northwest Territories?
The Auditor General’s report and the recommendations brought forward deal with various initiatives that we need to start working on, start implementing, and we have done so. We’re going to follow through with each and every recommendation, such as the daycare inspections, the report, the scheduling and so forth. Those are just some of the areas that we will be embarking on as we move forward.
The high cost of living is a challenge in the communities. Within our Education, Culture and Employment there are programs that support, whether it be the start-up costs of a child care facility or partial mortgage payments and operation costs. We will continue to invest heavily in that area as we have done in the past.
The 2013 February session is when we are going to gather the information. We’re doing our research at this point. Having the two departments working together, I believe we are, again, making history across Canada that we are hoping others will follow as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
