Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. That's a good question, and those are the kinds of questions that we have to answer every time we spend money, what was actually achieved by this. This is a difficult file, in many ways, because there are so many barriers to improving access and affordability. Some of those are the fact that it's difficult to find people to do this work, and so, you know, wage subsidies that are offered through this program help to retain employees for daycares who may have otherwise not continued to be employed. Is that concrete evidence? Perhaps we need to do a better job of evaluating this. I can go to my deputy minister for some more information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister.
Thank you very much. For this past three-year agreement, we really focused on trying to strengthen many of the programs that we had. For example, some of the initiatives were really around instructor training, trying to ensure that all of our licensed early childhood practitioners had opportunities for training in a variety of ways, in ways that they did not necessarily have before. We also focused on developing culturally appropriate materials, age-appropriate materials for all of our licensed centres, and ensuring that they had that consistently across all programs, which, normally, in the past, some of them would not have been able to have access to. We also really looked at, within this, to see what we could do to start the process of developing an early learning curriculum for our licensed program, so basically a foundation, to really look at what does it mean to have a quality program, and to try to engage all of our partners in that. Then, we also were able to continue with a yearly symposium on early learning and child development and were able to bring in licensed staff to be able to participate in that; so, really, a lot of our focus was training and development. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Minister.
Thank you, and I believe the Member's questions were more focused on our mandate and increasing the availability and affordability. A lot of what we have done is focused on quality and shoring up the foundation of our childcare, but, to the point of increasing it, affordability and availability, you know there is still obviously much work to be done. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Yes, thank you. Just to clarify, my questions were really about the three-year agreement that is coming to an end and how to point the way forward. My recollection of that agreement was that there was going to be more money for training, for scholarships, for wage subsidies and so on. Do you have any figures about the uptake on that, whether we have more trained people, we have a more stable workforce? Is there any kind of measurement that shows the value for that money spent? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. If I could hand it to Mr. MacDonald?
Thank you. Mr. MacDonald.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just with respect to the Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, we have an action plan associated with that agreement, that is a bilateral action plan with the Government of Canada, and we are obligated to report annually on the actions within that plan. That is a good place to highlight some of the commitments that we made to Canada in order to obtain that funding for the Northwest Territories. I would probably add that, in terms of strategy, how we have tried to deploy that funding on an annual basis over that three-year period is to enhance the programs and services that we provide. For example, the early childhood program, which is our key subsidy program for licensed childcare centres, we have increased the rates, with the intent of course to help stabilize, to reduce fees for parents, and to help ensure that those programs are sustainable in the long term. As we move into the next phase of that bilateral agreement, we will have more data and more information at our disposal to enable us to make good choices around childcare. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. MacDonald. Minister.
Thank you. If the Member is looking for metrics of how many scholarships, what we have done, the numbers involved, we will definitely put that together. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Yes, thank you for those responses. I would like to see the annual report on the action plan. I don't recall that was ever shared with the Standing Committee on Social Development, and it would be useful to see it. I understand the point of shoring up the current programming. I am not sure I understand so much developing curriculum for childcare. What I hear most often is that people find it difficult to obtain childcare and they find it unaffordable when it is available. As the Minister knows, there are a number of communities in the Northwest Territories, about a third of them, that do not have any childcare. My question is: how will the next agreement address questions around availability and affordability of childcare? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, and I take the Member's point that, in the previous three years, a lot of the work was focused not on necessarily increasing availability and affordability but on shoring up the foundations and using early childcare as a way to educate our youth and to prepare them for school. However, going forward, we are mandated to increase availability and to increase affordability, so we have a number of mandate items directly related to that. In the negotiations of the new agreement, we will be pursuing those as our priorities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for that. Can the Minister say what stage the negotiations are at and when he expects the new agreement to be in place? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. I think it might have to do with the federal election, but it's a bit of a waiting game right now. It's not just us. All of the territories and provinces are waiting to hear back from the federal government about what their offer is and what we could be negotiating for. Thank you. I don't have a timeline for the Member. I am sorry.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Yes, thank you. One of the discussions we had late in the last Assembly was about the possibility of rewriting the standards of space provided for childcare, in order to make it more accessible. As the Minister may recall, the standard for childcare space is akin to hospital space. It's a very high quality of space that is required. Not all communities have space available in that quality of building, so is there any development at all on the idea of making the space requirements for childcare more attainable? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. If you'll indulge me, I will go back to the Member's previous comments about the Early Learning and Child Care Agreement annual report that is done by the department. That was tabled in the last Assembly, the last year of the last Assembly, so that should be readily available. In terms of the Member's present question, yes, we are doing that work of looking at the spaces available; what type of spaces we can use; you know, looking at whether or not we can use government infrastructure, looking at how, in conjunction with the Housing Corporation, homes can be used for spaces. We have to commit to ensuring that these spaces are safe. That is the primary goal. I would not say it's akin to hospital space, but there are high standards. That being said, we are always open to looking at those standards, re-evaluating those standards. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. At this point, we will call a 10-minute recess or break.
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Members, I will now call the committee back to order. Next up, we have the Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Education is very important across the North. Our education rates, our inclusive schooling needs across the territory, but over the course of this government's term, we will spend over $70 million in forced growth for our UNW collective bargaining compared to our $25 million that we have set aside for all of the 22 priorities that we put as 19 Members. It's only a third of what we're spending in the salaries of increases that are going to happen. You know, some of that money would have been much better and needed in early childhood and school services. Mr. Chair, it's more of a comment, but I think we have to take a step back and take a good look at what we're doing here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you to the Member for the comment.
Member for Nunakput.
No. At least the Minister's hearing me loud and clear. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. The next will be the Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to ask a question to the Minister with regard to the territorial support team, and how many times they go into the communities. Because it's a territorial support team, I would like to know how many times they come to the community of Fort Smith?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. It's on a referral basis, so it's not scheduled visits. It's based on the needs of the community. For some detail, I can go to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The territorial team is available to all schools and all education bodies. It is based on referrals. What they do is they indicate through their superintendent a particular child that they would like to have help and support with. Often, it's initiated by the principal, and the program support teacher, and the classroom teacher. That support comes in a variety of ways. If the team is needed onsite, they'll go onsite. Often, they're helping through video conferencing and through teleconferencing as well, so that's daily. They might have multiple meetings with different schools, talking about different supports for various students. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Minister.
Thank you.
Member for Thebacha.
I guess a territorial support team, they're very hard to find qualified people like psychologists and a whole team to go into, to have a team in every community which is ideal and that will never happen, but if the territorial support team is only done by referral, I think there should be a more organized group. The group should actually be doing every month or every two months, at least, into the community. When they're not there, I'm just wondering if the special needs children, the autism and all the special needs that we have at schools, are being financially looked after in a different way.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. I appreciate what the Member is saying. It would be nice if we had the resources to send the team out to the regions on a regular basis, but the fact is, they just don't have the time. We don't have enough people. This is intended to augment what's already going on in the community, not to replace that. It's not the only service that these students would be getting. It's valuable. For the students who need it, it's very, very valuable for the students, the parents, and the teachers. I would love to do what the Member is asking and get them out into the different communities on a regular basis, but the fact is that we just don't have the power to do that, the number of people that we would need to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.
I'd like to ask the Minister: how could you call this a territorial support team if they're not able to go into the communities?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. The territorial support team does go into the communities. They don't travel there on a regular basis. There are referrals. Based on those referrals, I believe there's been 42 in the last year, so there's been nine from the Beaufort Delta; there's been four in the Sahtu; the Deh Cho, Tlicho. They've been all over the entire territory. The largest number is in Yellowknife, but that's just because of the size of the population, but they do travel to every region. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.
