Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hearing Mr. Bouchard’s Member’s statement sure makes me happy.
During my Sahtu community tours, I found there is a population of young people we have listened to and spoken to and these young people want to work. There’s a huge population of my young people in the Sahtu who want to work. We do not want to rely on government assistance and income support over and over and over. We want to work. We finished school, we’ve gone to post-secondary, we did the trades training and we want to work. We want to make a contribution to our family. We want to buy things for our family, for our children, take vacations. We do not like getting the income support system. So when they told me that, I ask them what are some of the barriers, and one of the barriers they have said is that we do not have a child care centre in Norman Wells or in Colville Lake. That stops us. We either have to rely on babysitters in the community, and sometimes they’re not very reliable, or we have to stay at home. They pay a price either way. They said, “If we had a child care centre where we can leave our children to be brought up in a safe environment, it would go a long way.” Some of these are single parents who want to go into the workforce or go to school.
Our young people are hungry to work, are hungry to go to school and hungry to make a living. They do not like to sit idle. They want to get off their keisters and go to work. It’s a simple plain fact for them.
I’ll ask questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment why we need daycare centres in Norman Wells and Colville Lake. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
