Thank you, Madam Chair. This was what I was referring to in my earlier opening comments. And just that I think that if there is going to be an establishment of some sort of a complaints process and, like I said, would give the staff within the department a lot of sort of control and influence over people's lives, that there has to be some sort of mechanism in place or process in place that everybody can refer to that outlines the investigative process. If we ever were to look at, like, the way that accidents are investigated under health and safety plans, there's a very clear way that you go about doing an investigation and I would assume it's the same in an HR or other type of process. So rather than it being some arbitrary thing in the Act that just gives some random power, the department must figure out a way to ensure that everybody's aware of that process ahead of actually having anything occur that would then start the process happening. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories
Provide investigative training to all staff involved in the complaints and appeals processes;
Make this training obligatory for all staff involved; and,
Build competence by ensuring that investigations are not vexatious and are appropriately carried out.
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? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories ensures that administrative decisions are reasonable by considering the outcome of decisions and the process to come to the decisions. 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? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories review the appeals process in the Child Day care Act.
In the shortterm with the view to
Identify and make improvements to make sure that the Act clearly outlines out appeals can be requested and considered; and,
Clarify how complaints and appeal processes are distinguished in the Act; and,
Recommend how administrative decisions are made fairly, consistently, and in accordance with the legislation.
And,
In the longterm, with the view to
Fully review the appeals section;
Include comparison with other jurisdictions; and,
Result on a modernized appeals section.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been all. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories include in its vision of a sustainable child care system information on the following:
How to support the early learning and child care sector in its transition;
How to embrace NWT realities without disadvantaging any of the existing parts of the child care sector;
Considerations for licensing and supporting that proportion of the child care sector constituted by forprofit day homes.
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? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories recognize that the actions started under the federal agreement have initiated systems change in the Northwest Territories early learning and child care sector and require immediate action by the Government of the Northwest Territories to reduce the volatility that may unfold;
And further, identify shortfalls in funding targets outside of the federal agreement focused on Northwest Territories needs including, but not limited to,
Capital and operating funding allocations;
Incentive loans for new buildings and retrofits;
Campaign action attracting potential child care educators;
Bonus for child care certificate completions; and,
Strategies to support professional development for ELCC workers to allow training out impacting existing work schedules.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order oh, Member for or to the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, just sort of reiterating what I said before. I think this motion is really key for the government in order to ensure that we don't lose any more spaces. I know that there has been talk about new spaces being created. But those were all in the works before this issue around the child care funding and the subsequent changes. You know, I do think that there is an opportunity for this relationship to be repaired. However, it is going to take, I think, the will of the department and the Minister to want to recognize that regardless of how they feel about forprofit operators and such, and who deserves this funding, they have created and set in motion a wave of closures that, you know, is not going to be stopped at this point if nothing is specifically done. So I don't think can wait on anything further. And I think that there really needs to be proactive action now to fix the problem versus waiting and seeing what happens, because it'll take a lot more to create new spaces again once they're gone than to save the ones we have already. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I didn't get my hand up fast enough there. No, I wanted to speak to this one because this is definitely one of the most important recommendations as far as what we heard from child care providers across the territory. One of the biggest concerns, especially from not for profit organizations, is their ability to keep operating when we have, in previous legislation, set a limit to what that cost increase can be for what they are charging parents on an annual basis, and then we are coming in and we are setting a wage grid that will show, or dictate rather, what the workers that work in these operations need to be paid. And so the concern there is what if all of a sudden insurance goes through the roof, which it has, how do they turn around and pay for that? What if all of a sudden a child care operation loses a boiler? This is something that can absolutely happen. There are unexpected expenses that come up and how do people keep their doors open when they don't have a mechanism to charge for these shortfalls. And so understanding how people are going to keep the doors open when their costs sorry, for when what they are charging is dictated by the government but then also what they are paying out is dictated by the government. And so this is a huge concern.
That second piece there, incentive loans for new buildings and retrofits, when we look at lessons learned from Quebec, when they introduced their very heavily governmentsubsidized child care, one of the things that they saw was all of a sudden way more people were accessing child care and all of a sudden, there was way more demand than spaces for child care. That is exactly what we are seeing in the Northwest Territories right now. And one of the key things that lessons learned have said out of Quebec are build as many new spaces and not for profits as you can right off the bat in order to meet that demand. And our infrastructure funding in the territory is not enough to actually build the new spaces that this government intends to build across the territory.
Sorry, Madam Chair, the last thing that I just quickly wanted to say is that that last piece of allow training without impacting existing work schedules, if all of a sudden people need to close their day homes in order to do training, we will have another huge problem on our hands. So the government, I can't stress enough, this is a very important recommendation and I look forward to hearing a response. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories view the obligation to consult on regulations as an opportunity for innovation, inclusiveness, flexibility, and reconciliation, and be open to considering detailed feedback. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I don't think I can tell you how many times in the last Assembly we tried to get into legislation some obligations for Ministers, Cabinets, department, whatever, to actually consult in the development of regulations. So this is a really significant concession that committee negotiated with the Minister, and I'm just not sure that people really realize how significant this is. You know, we do this with Indigenous governments now, and we're required to do it, but to get this for a sector, this is really good. And to get it actually in legislation, not just practice, because I think this government's made some improvement in its practices but it's still kind of hit and miss about what they go out for, the quality of the socalled "what we heard" reports go from atrocious to pretty good sometimes. But lots of need for better reports on what we heard. But this is a very significant concession, and I want to thank the Minister because I know he was on this side of the House for pushing for some of this in the last Assembly, and this is really good. And I think we need to do more of this in the future. But also think of the public. And I keep planting those seeds with my friends on the other side. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No, I would also like to extend a huge amount of gratitude to the Minister and his department on this one, this one, and as far as paying credit where credit is due and being able to say some nice things to the other side of the House, especially when we pick on them every day.
We did the same type of amendment in Bill 40, the Medical Professions Act from social development in conjunction with the Minister of Health and Social Services and her staff, and that is where this amendment and, really, the implementation of it in a lot of our work has come from. And so I want to first thank the Minister of Health and Social Services for agreeing to that. And then also thank the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and his staff for following us down that road and implementing that. Hopefully we'll see that in more legislation going forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. 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 urges the Government of the Northwest Territories to
Be innovative and identify options for increasing child day care spots at no or little cost including, but not limited to, changing the ratio of educators to children under two years of age by reducing the age of the infant category to children under 18 months of age. This would create additional spaces for children 18 months and older.
Completing negotiations with Housing Northwest Territories to allow licensed day care sorry, licensed child care to operate in public housing;.
Creating subgroups or sublicenses to allow child care centres, schoolbased child care, and child care offered in homes to offer licensed spaces;.
Create substitute lists or licensing to backfill so that if one educator gets sick, not all six kids must stay home;.
Create additional lists or licensing to enable before and after school day care , including evening care so that educators who have time can take additional hours.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I first want to start by thanking thanking some of the constituents in my riding that do run day homes who actually were the source for some of these suggestions, particularly which really struck me was, you know, making the change of the age limit. That one being very critical to my constituents. But also the one that really struck me that I hadn't thought about was the substitution list, which the day home providers are saying that basically because they know that they're sick day will then result in, you know, six other people or potentially parents having to stay home from work if they were to choose the day, that they often find themselves working when sick or, you know, finding themselves at the end of burnout because they don't have the opportunity to take the time when they need it. And so I think there's some really easy low hanging fruit, as everyone likes to call it, in this recommendation that could easily be done that would create a bit more of sort of a network or community for day home providers.
I grew up living next door to a day home provider and the amount of work and effort that this woman put in for the children in her care, there is no way she was making a profit off of it. If anything, she was providing Christmases to children that didn't have it otherwise.
So having visited some of my constituents' homes, I recognize the absolute level of dedication and effort that they've put in to creating these amazing spaces for their clients and their children. And there's some very but yet they're not treated in the sense of another type of an industry where they would be given the respect, I think, that others would have or even just sort of the supports, like I said, to be able to go and network and find they're not people that are showing up at the Chamber of Mines or sorry, the Chamber of Commerce meetings and such. So, really, I think the onus is on the government and the department to help them figure out how to network and support each other and, you know, if someone is at a lower level, they can pick up slack in another area and vice versa, giving people a break when they need it.
Another really key piece was when this all came out, one of the things that I wanted to see was to see grandparents being paid to take care of their children, to see the unusual day care sort of or child care situations of the North recognized in the legislation because we so often have situations where parents are, you know or grandparents or such are stepping in, aunties or uncles or a sister might take care of her children and her sister's children at the same time because she is already staying home, and I think that needs to be recognized, and I think that needs to be compensated for, particularly as this bill really or this $10 a day day care is really more for Yellowknife and regional centres. So that's a way I feel to make it more equitable to small community members to access this federal funding and to get some sort of relief when it comes to their own child care needs because just because they don't fit into the stereotypical day care or day home in Canada. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. 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.
