Thanks, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Yes. All the funding remains the same. Just put into one pot. Makes it much easier to access and apply on that funding. So, yes, it is the same as last year. No reductions.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The remaining funding for supports and other performers that is there, if it is easier to access than the other funding, why is it staying as its own program? Just wondering why. If there are more efficiencies, we would be fine with putting everything in a single-use fund such as the SEED funding and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, which is a very large pot of money that is easy to access. If that is a more efficient approach, should we not just be doing that with all these little funding pots instead of leaving some the same and eliminating other pots? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
In terms of some of the programs that our northern artists have been accessing, this one is under $15,000, so it is less reporting that has to be done. It is taken out of that area. I will ask the deputy minister if he would like to give a little more information on that program itself and why we did move it. It was under $15,000 available funding, so less reporting in the end.
Recognizing Deputy Minister Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member will note, the $101,000 that is up top, that is up for grabs. Anything that is under $15,000 we are handing out as a grant where there is much less onerous reporting. The other portions are contribution agreements where there is a required level of reporting that comes with the contribution agreements. That is the difference between the two: we consolidated all of our contributions under one program, but we left the grants for those under $15,000 in what is above with the $101,000 that are still. Those are small amounts that go out to individual artists and performers that are supported under that program.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My final question involves the heritage centres. Is that an actual increase to funding for heritage centres? Could the Minister indicate who accesses that funding and how it is used? I would just like to gain a better understanding. I know there is not a lot of well-celebrated heritage centres in the North, shall I say. It would be nice to see more of them roll out and take a bigger role in underpinning our tourism strategy and really promoting and preserving our cultures and minority languages as well. If we could just get a better understanding of how that money is used and who is using it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Yes. Thank you. Contributions to the heritage centres are contributions to registered and emerging heritage centres for the operation of community-based facilities that acquire, preserve, and exhibit information, objects, artifacts, and works of art portraying the heritage of the Northwest Territories. The heritage centres that we currently fund are the Fort Simpson Historical Society, Hay River Museum Society, Norman Wells Historical Society, Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, Northern Life Museum, and the NWT Mining Heritage Society. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Any further questions. Recognizing Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a question that concerns the northern arts programs. There is no funding indicated there this year. That has gone into arts organizations operating funds. Is that correct? Thank you.
Thanks, Ms. Green. Mr. Minister.
Yes. That is correct.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Green.
I would like to understand, given this change, whether the amount of money available for northern film producers is the same as last year, which I believe was $100,000. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Minister.
I believe that budget line item is under Industry, Tourism and Investment. Thank you.
Thanks, Mr. Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.
Any further questions. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to look at two other line items. Early childhood program. We seem to have an increase of roughly $1 million compared to last year. We look down a couple of line items and we have the Healthy Children Initiative, which seems to be a reduction of roughly about a million dollars from the year previous. Is there any correlation between the two of these? If there isn't, maybe can we get explanations either way as it relates to the increase on early childhood programming and the reduction on healthy children initiative? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. As we were going through Right from the Start Action Plan and the way we, as I made a statement this morning, in terms of how we were going to be funding daycares and day homes, we did have to do short-term reorganization of how we fund certain areas. Also, have a look at the Early Childhood Intervention Program, as well as how we were funding those as well. It all relates, but it is all going to the same type of focus and area. But as I mentioned, I did make a statement in the House this morning on how we fund daycares and day homes. That is going to be reflective in making sure that we are able to sustain our daycares and day homes in the communities.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister's comment. How about relative to the Healthy Children Initiative? That is a reduction of $1 million. Those funds have been rolled into the early childhood program, is that what I was hearing in the explanation, just to be clear. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.
Yes, that's pretty well correct, and moving forward is just providing funding to integrate early intervention services. I will ask my deputy minister for a little bit more detail on that.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Minister. Recognizing deputy minister Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Minister has noted, the Healthy Children Initiative, when we did the review of the program one of the things that was noted about that program was that a lot of the funds that went out to it was for general wages and salaries inside of daycares. The numbers that reflect here reflect the first part of the year we had the old programs and now we're rolling out the new programs. There is going to be much more concentrated approach to the Early Childhood Intervention Program to make sure it's going to kids with special needs, and so what we've done is allocate a portion of the money that was previously for Healthy Children to the overall operating subsidy and then targeting the program much more directly on the Early Childhood Intervention Program. But part of what you see here is reflective of that program rolling out in mid-year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one more question that I'd like to raise and I apologize if somebody else has already raised it, but as the Minister is aware and colleagues very well know, we have identified within our mandate that we will develop an action plan for universal daycare within the next couple years. Can the Minister describe for committee where, if any, funds have been identified to start that action plan where it would be identified within the budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.
With the universal child daycare programs and moving forward, right now I think the early stages that we have made in terms of the programs and subsidizing our daycares and putting more money into our daycares and day homes is the first step. Next we are going to be looking at developing that action plan per to the motion that was brought in the House. Right now, the funding changes that we have made is to have better services in the communities and to make sure that our daycares and our day homes are able to sustain their operations.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the reply. I'm just wondering then what are the next steps in developing the action plan and what resources will be put towards that. Are there any this year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.
Well, just looking at development of some of the parameters around the program itself, as you know early childhood is a big area to focus on. We had some very startling statistics with our EDI results last year and we want to make sure that we're adjusting some of the bigger issues, the priorities right, and eventually we will get into those areas, but obviously we can't do everything all at once. I think the changes that we made right now is really reflective in making early childhood a priority of this government. I think we need the support and make sure that we're implementing these programs right now, and then as things start to progress and we're able to sustain it then we started working on that action plan. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Lastly because I know we're going to move past education and culture and move into income security right away, and I just think this is the division that we want to ask any questions on junior kindergarten. I just want to maybe ask the Minister at this time what the department's perspective is on junior kindergarten knowing that we actually had a report presented not long ago, the independent junior kindergarten review. Again, similar to that of the universal daycare, what is the department's next steps as it relates to junior kindergarten and what do we see rolling out in that regard for this fiscal year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.
Yes, out of that report it did talk about more consultation with the communities and specifically the communities that have had the program before. You want to make sure what's worked, what hasn't, we want to get an inventory of the resources, the space that’s available in the some of the communities that want to implement it. Initially, I believe there was 23 communities that did look at trying to do daycares, I mean junior kindergarten. But some of them couldn't offer the program because they didn't have any four-year-olds. Our next steps is to go out into the communities, especially the ones that were working well and seeing what was the success in there, but also looking at other communities in terms of resources and space and if there's anything that we need to provide in terms of resources. Also consulting with our daycares, our day homes as well. As I mentioned, we did make a statement earlier today on our funding for daycares and day homes so we're going to be able to show them that we can work together as well as the Aboriginal Head Start Program. We had meetings back I believe in November and this week our staff is going to be meeting with Aboriginal Head Start. There's, I believe, eight in the Northwest Territories and we're going to make sure as we roll out junior kindergarten that we want to have everybody on board and that we're all providing the services with the right intention that it should be focused on some of our most vulnerable, which is our young kids going into kindergarten.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you Mr. Chair, I appreciate the response. Thank you.
Thank you. Further questions. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just as I've been listening to the answers the Minister's been giving and looking at this page, I wonder if one early childhood provider of services was looking for government money, it seems like there would be a number of programs that they would be eligible for at any given time. I know the Minister earlier today said that there was some simplification going on, but I wonder if is a scope for more combinations of programs that would reduce the administrative burden of them? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Minister.
Yes, as I mentioned in my Minister's statement earlier today, all programs that daycare and day homes have opportunities to access, we have tried to streamline it all together so it's easier for them to get the programs and with the applications increase the burden of filling out so many applications. Thank you.
