Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on the rollout of our childcare subsidies.
My understanding is that in order for childcare providers to sign on to an agreement, they have to agree to a 2.3 percent cap on a fee increase.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I recognize that if the goal is to get to $10 day, $10 a day childcare, clearly, our agreements are going to have to put a cap on how much fees can be raised. But I think in a year with record inflation, starting our negotiations at 2.3 percent is putting some day homes in a very difficult position. And I don't know if we want to start year one of a multiyear roll out with such a hard bargaining position.
So my question for the Minister is would he consider increasing that cap to at least be allow more aligned with inflation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We I've stated before that the increase that is laid out in the contribution agreement is 2.3 percent, and if there are legitimate reasons why a business or a childcare centre needs to increase that, we're happy to have those discussions.
I think that a lot of the concerns that we're hearing are increases of 20 or 30 percent from programs that are already at the top end of what is being charged for childcare. So we are accommodating, but we're not accommodating increases that essentially wipe out a reduction in parent fees. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'm looking for a bit more of a commitment on from the Minister and when he says they're happy to have that conversation. I know the 20, 30 percent number can be complicated. In some cases, it's day homes who haven't raised fees in years, and so they're well below their competitors. And in other cases, I'm hearing from, you know, daycares who recently decided to give their staff a living wage, something that we are hoping to roll out in the coming years with the pay grid, but now they're essentially they're taking the step themselves, and they're ahead, and they're concerned that the 2.3 percent is putting them in a position to either roll back the living wage or not sign on to the agreement.
So I guess I'm looking to the Minister for a commitment that exceptions will be made for cases where, you know, a day home hasn't raised fees in years or where, you know, someone has taken the step to already do what we want them do and provide their workers a living wage. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I don't have much more to add than what I've just said in that we are going to sit down with providers who are saying that they need to increase their rates and have those discussions. So I guess if that's what commitment that the Member wants, but to say that I'm going to commit to doing these things that are very specific to each individual provider is just something I I can't make a commitment to something when I don't know what I'm committing to. But those conversations are happening, and we realize that we want everyone on board.
This is a major shift in how things are done. We are trying to roll this out. We're trying to get money in or into the pockets of parents, and it is a learning experience. And so based on the experiences we're having here, we realize that perhaps the plan we have going forward needs to be adjusted.
We have a table with the federal government where we can go back and we can say this has been our experience so far; perhaps we need to move some money around from different places to adjust for the realities that we're facing.
We also have money that we provide to childcare providers from the GNWT, and those programs are all up for they've been reviewed, and we're looking to change those so they work better as well.
So there's a lot of room to move, and we want to make sure that we get money in the pockets of parents and we don't negate those returns that they're supposed to see. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that there is a lot of work to do, and the Minister seems more than willing to have conversations and, you know, find solutions to those exceptions.
I guess I'm hearing from multiple organizations they're getting some conflicting information; they're still not quite sure how much money they will actually get and how it relates to potential fee increases. Some were told on March 24th that if the fee increase happened before end of fiscal before April 1st, that then that it wouldn't they would not be denied and then later they were told no, no, that 2.3 percent increase still applies.
So I guess I'm looking for clarification from the Minister on is there some sort of deadline of when we're looking backwards at the fee increases and if the day homes or childcare providers are told that if they did it before April 1st, it wasn't going to affect the subsidy, can we honour that commitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been meetings with all the childcare providers, and they have opportunities to ask those questions. You know, these discussions that we're having are great opportunities for us to find out exactly what the issues are and zero in on those.
And so as, you know, the MLAs have brought additional questions and concerns to me, I bring those to the department, and, in turn, the department then brings finds ways to answer those for the programs.
So the best thing to do for a program is to sit down with their early childhood consultant and go over those numbers. And it's not a simple process to determine what, you know, they will be getting. So there is some work that needs to be done, and I know that everyone or people often want an answer right now, but there's a bit of work to happen, especially given the magnitude of this undertaking. But I encourage everyone to have those conversations with the early childhood consultants. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
