Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
My statement dealt with the current status of implementation of the federalterritorial childcare agreement and, particularly, the childcare fee reduction program, a rebate program. There was an April 15th deadline for opting into the program.
Can the Minister tell us how many childcare providers opted in, how many didn't, and have funds flowed to the enrolled providers for distribution of fee rebates to parents? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe there's 98 organizations in the Northwest Territories all together who provide childcare and charge fees. And I can say that 100 percent of the centrebased programs that offer infant and preschool programming opted in to the childcare fee reduction subsidy for 20212022, so prior to the beginning of this fiscal year or last the end of last fiscal year as well as this current fiscal year. All but one family day home opted in to that time period as well. And all but two organizations who offer after school programs opted in for the entirety of the program starting from January 1st of this year. So of the 98 organizations, three have not opted in. Thank you.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, and I'm sure he's going to tell me next whether the money started to flow.
But I mentioned the provisions in the agreement that cap fee increases for operators to 2.3 percent annually. And, you know, this is in an environment where nationally inflation is running at 6.7 percent. Here in Yellowknife, 7.1 percent. The Minister's confirmed the increase is above 2.3 percent will be allowed when deemed necessary. So what's the definition, Mr. Speaker, of "necessary" and when would the Minister allow increases beyond the 2.3 percent cap? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. And to question 1(b), I can say that the ECE has processed the January to March payments for all programs and the majority of programs have received payments for the current fiscal year as well. And there is a 60day window after receiving that that programs can start flowing that to parents, understanding that, you know, it could take a little bit of work.
The 2.3 percent increase was based on historic averages. And, you know, I understand that historic average is comprised of highs and lows. And so going forward, we don't have a cap set for the upcoming year. We've moved some money around within the program to ensure that we can keep up with the unforeseen costs of inflation.
Sorry, the Member was asking some a number of questions here. So I'm just going through the notes to see what else I can answer here.
The 2.3 percent cap, a few programs were exempted from that, and that was based on whether or not, you know, they needed an increase beyond that to survive essentially. And so in those instances where the operating costs were exceeding what they were bringing in, that cap was adjusted. Thank you.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I appreciate the detailed answers from the Minister, and of course I gave him the heads up with these questions ahead of time.
So I've cited the use of funds for costs like training, staff development, wage subsidies, or costs of infrastructure to increase spaces. Can the Minister tell us whether there has been any new decisions or direction allowing use of agreement funds to meet these costs and how can providers access that funding? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the new money from the federal government, it's about $10 million a year, and it doesn't quite double what we were already spending. We were spending $10 million in GNWT funds and about $2.4 of federal money. So there's already a significant amount of money going into the system prior to this new influx of money.
So the current funding that is flowing out that everyone knows about is intended to reduce the costs for parents. However, there is obviously additional money, and we are working to get that out the door.
So the childcare fee reduction, that's the money for parents, we got that out the door. Parents should see probably over $4 million more in their pockets this year because of that. The wages for early childhood educators is the other big issue.
ECE already provides an incentive for early childhood educators based on the level of education. And so that's a payment of however many thousands of dollars based on education levels. This year, we are also rolling out the retention incentive bonus for early childhood educators out of the new federal funding recognizing that their wages don't reflect the importance of their roles.
There's also additional funding there's also funding now for postsecondary education. We have bursaries. We provide money to Aurora College or College Nordique to provide programming to educator early childhood educators. We'll be doing more of that as well.
So we're doing a lot, and this money is essentially allowing us to do more of the same as well as further reduce costs. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I've talked here about, you know, the need to create more childcare spaces, particularly in communities that don't have childcare.
So can the Minister tell us what action needs taking now to create or ensure that new spaces are created in those communities that do not have childcare providers, period. And how is the Minister going to meet the demand for more childcare workers to provide universal and affordable childcare? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These are very complex questions with many aspects to them. I will do my best to try and remember everything that the Member asked and provide some answers.
So as the Members know, we have the Early Childhood Infrastructure Fund, and that is being prioritized for communities where there are no childcare programs. There's currently 12 communities with no childcare programs, and that $1 million is available on application to communities to help them build that type of infrastructure.
We also have existing programming to help retrofit or make spaces more appropriate for early learning and childcare centres when perhaps not a new build or substantial renovations are required. So we're already doing that.
The other component is ensuring there are enough childcare providers or childcare workers to staff these childcare centres. And I spoke about the supports for students earlier as well as the retention incentive bonus, which I think really is key.
If you have people looking at the job market and you have a job where people are making good money, you're going to attract people. So that really is one of the keys of this program as we roll it out, to ensure that that is significant driver of people into this industry. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
