Thank you. Are there any further comments before we begin the departmental summaries? Seeing none, thank you. Does the Minister of Finance wish to bring witnesses into the House?
No, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Committee, we have previously deferred the matter of consideration of departmental summaries. Members, we will begin the departmental summary for the Legislative Assembly so please turn to page 5 of your Tabled Document.
Legislative Assembly, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates $27,655,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the department summary for Education, Culture and Employment on page 29.
Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $382,280,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the departmental summary for the environment and climate change on page 73. environment and natural resource oh, environment and climate change, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $124,309,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the departmental summary for executive and Indigenous affairs on page 119.
Executive and Indigenous Affairs, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $21,994,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the departmental summary for finance on page 149.
Finance, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $337,534,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the departmental summary for Health and Social Services on page 181.
Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates $610,276,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will continue with the departmental summary for Industry, Tourism and Investment on page 221.
Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $61,476,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now continue with the departmental summary for Infrastructure on page 251.
Infrastructure, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $309,335,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the departmental summary for Justice on page 293.
Justice, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $145,613,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the departmental summary for Municipal and Community Affairs on page 331.
Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, total department, 20232024 Main Estimates, $185,681,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will now continue with the departmental summary for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation on page 373. Please note the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is an information item and will not be voted on.
Does committee agree that this concludes consideration of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that this concludes consideration of Tabled Document 81319(2)? Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 81319(2), Main Estimates 20232024, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 81319(2) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Mahsi, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. Tabled Document 81319(2) will be recorded as ready for consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill.
Carried
Thank you, committee. Committee, we've agreed to consider Committee Report 421(2), Report on Bill 66: An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act.
I will go to the chair of the special committee on government operations sorry, the Standing Committee on Government Operations for any opening comments. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 66, An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 3rd, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review.
Committee sought feedback on Bill 66, and from that feedback committee was able to amend three clauses to make the bill more functional. The amendments made a clausebyclause review reflect a resolution advocated by a nonprofit organization and to address transparency concerning deadlines and decisions to approved purchases.
The committee presented its report on the bill to the Legislative Assembly on February 27th, 2023. I would like to thank committee for its work on the review of Bill 66. Individual Members may have additional comments. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Committee Report 4219(2). Do any Members have general comments? Seeing none. Committee, do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Committee Report 4219(2)?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 4219(2), Report on Bill 66: An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act.
Committee, we've agreed to consider Committee Report 4819(2), Report on Bill 68: An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act. I will go to the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development for any opening comments. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 3rd, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.
In its review, committee was disappointed to find that the scope of Bill 68 was narrow. That narrow scope made it challenging to propose any full-scale amendments.
It was important to the committee to hear from the public on this bill because the committee is alive to the fact that day care legislation affects families in a real way across the Northwest Territories.
The committee received nine written submissions and six verbal presentations on Bill 68. The recommendations that the committee formulated were in response to a clear lack of trust and confidence in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.
The committee heard from child care operators. The committee's recommendations also address complaints, appeals, retaliation, and privacy considerations that were brought up by child care operators.
Finally, the committee made recommendations that urge the department to innovate ways to improve the act and the current reality of day care in the Northwest Territories.
I'd like to thank committee for its work on the review of Bill 68, and I would also like to thank the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for its willingness to work with us on amendments to improve this bill. Madam Chair, I'd also like to thank the members of the public that came to committee on a regular basis over the course of this Assembly to talk about child care on numerous occasions. It was very much needed input and an input that we continue to encourage from the public. Individual Members, Madam Chair, may have additional comments at this time. Thank you.
Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Committee Report 4819(2). Do any Members have general comments? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, without reiterating everything that my colleague said, I also found this to be a very frustrating and disappointing bill to work on. I do also appreciate, though, that there has been the back and forth with the department and to try and come to some sort of a solution here. But I can't help be left feeling like this is yet again another instance of where a federal program or a federal idea, federal funding, is being pushed on us without proper advocacy from the government to the federal government to understand that it just doesn't work for us here. And there's been a real sense of division created through this bill between parents and providers, between day cares and day home providers, between the department and the providers. And as such, the minimal effects of this bill, or really what's going to be done by this bill in the limited scope, was not worth the damage, I feel, that it's created here. All I hear daily is of people looking for child care spaces. And then I hear there's supposed to be more coming and this is all going to be great, and it's going to help. And yet daily people are telling me about day homes that are closing or how, you know, as soon as they get pregnant, they need to start looking for someplace to put their child and such. And then I hear not only from providers of day homes but also the day care association itself that this doesn't work for them. So then I have to wonder when the department is making statements that everyone's on board and everybody is good and it's going to really have this great effect, but yet all the people executing the work are telling me that's not the case. I find myself in a terrible position of having to figure out who's telling me the truth and given my history in this House, I think I know who is. So my concern here is by passing this legislation in which there's even things around complaint processes that, you know, have nothing to do with the federal funding in which this bill was put through under or that was sort of the impetus for it. So when I see that the department is looking to establish a quasijudicial type system that allows a GNWT employee at a director level to be making decisions about people's livelihoods, I feel it's a very gross overstep of government reach. And I also look at it like when I look at who the providers are, it's women. There's many women of colour. With allegations of that coming from the department as well, that there's been specific targeting of people. You know, I just have to look and question why we're even talking about this bill at this point. Yeah, so I think I'll wrap it up there. But I feel that this has been a, I would say, a complete failure of a legislative process. And, yeah, I'm disappointed with it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any other general comments? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't want to speak too long about this but I think part of the issue here was we were one of the last jurisdictions to negotiate an agreement with the federal government, and when it was signed, I think it was in December of last year, and of course one of the objectives of the federal government was to try to reduce fees for parents, try to institute basically some program of $10 a day child care across the country. And given the timing of the agreement when it was finally signed and the need to get these caps or try to meet the federal objective, it led to I think some poor communications and sense of service providers being told what they could do.
So on the one hand, they're being told that they could not raise revenues. And then the next step was to actually try to improve the situation for staff and the training certification, the pay grid for them. And those are all good and noble things but if you're an operator, all you can think about is gee, now I'm going to have pay my workers more. So they're being squeezed at both ends in terms of the revenue and then being told that you're going to have to spend more money and there's no consistent or even clear messaging that support for the service providers is actually going to be increased in any way to try to compensate for being squeezed at both ends. And I think there was a communications failure. And I think some of it's related to the timing of this but some of it now we're in a very difficult situation of trying to do everything at once, and the bill that came forward to committee is very limited in scope. As the chair said in his maybe not even the right way to try to rebuild some trust and confidence amongst operators and between operators and the department.
I do want to commend the department and staff for working very hard to try to rebuild some of that working relationship and trust and confidence. And I know that they continue to do that work. But it's a very difficult situation for parents, families, and the providers when there doesn't seem to be a lot of certainty for where this is all going. So I think we really need to improve communications. They probably need to devote more resources in terms of staff within ECE to this function as well and work more collaboratively with the service providers, and I think some of the recommendations are really aimed at trying to address those bigger issues and concerns that are go well beyond the scope of the bill. Thanks, Madam Chair.
And I sorry, I do want to thank the committee for all their hard work in trying to find ways to address the concerns and issues that were being raised, even if you couldn't if they couldn't they didn't have the ability to address it through legislative change, the recommendations I think try to find some creative ways to address some of these issues and come up with some solutions collaboratively with the department and the Minister. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any further general comments? Seeing no further comments, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, do you want me to wait until the motion's distributed to my colleague.
Yes, just give him a minute. All right. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories
Form an advisory group, including representation from all parties;
Review the 2030 Early Learning and Child Care Strategy on the inclusion of child care operators in goals and visions;
Establish and share a Northwest Territories vision and mission of the early learning and child care sector, including principles and explaining where the federal child care agreements fit, requiring fiveyear reviews to check if the Northwest Territories is fulfilling its vision;
Conduct an independent review of the rollout of the early learning and child care agreement;
Conduct an independent review of the Child Day care Act; and,
Address the crisis of confidence by reconciling with the Northwest Territories early learning child care sector and starting with improving communication by increasing responsiveness to clients and establishing client service standards and committing to explaining processes to the public before implementation providing plain language materials and designating communication channels for operators to access early childhood education specialists and information.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment improve and provide clarity on how a person may complain about an organization's service to the public by
Providing guidance material for the complaints process to support parents and staff; and,
Developing a policy on the complaints process.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
