Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to start off I'd like to answer the Member's previous question. So we currently fund 1,956 spaces in the Northwest Territories.
As far as the background on where those spaces come from, I would like to, please, pass to assistant deputy minister BarnettAikman.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
So at present, we have a breakdown of 308 spaces in the Beaufort Delta; 138 spaces in the Deh Cho; 1,186 spaces in North Slave, 44 spaces in the Sahtu; and 280 spaces in the South Slave.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you for that response. Now to the ratios, the caregiver to child ratio, what's the basis for our formulas? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have the historical information on where those numbers originate from. That said, however, I am familiar with the regulations that the Member is speaking of and the concern, especially around schoolaged children and after school care, and can commit to following up with the Member in further detail on that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. So is there any impediment to change those ratios from the department's perspective? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the perspective of the system would be in order to ensure the safety of children in care. One of the things I know, just having spoken to people about this especially in the last term, was in regards to, you know, why can we have a certain number of kids in a classroom and then it shifts to after school care, and we have less kids that are allowed to be less in the adult to child ratio that we're allowed that we are allowing in after school care programs. And one of the things that is communicated to me is because during the day when you have school ongoing, you've got a lot more adults in the school. You've got a lot more presence and a lot more supervision, and so once you shift to after school, a lot of people end up leaving the school, not the same amount of people in the hallways, and ensuring especially, for example, bathroom safety, and so I'm definitely more than happy to follow up on that, but safety is the number one. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So of course, the safety of children is always paramount and should be the key consideration to any policy around their care. Will the Minister commit to reviewing the ratios with the daycare association and other daycare providers this fiscal year? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the NWT Early Childhood Association has a very good working relationship with the department. I've had the opportunity to chat with them during multiple occasions and can definitely ensure that this is added to the conversation in an upcoming meeting for sure to make sure that we have kind of the full context of asks and then go from there. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Well thank you, and thank you for that commitment. And I think the I'm pleased Minister's perspective is that that's where the relationship's at because when we started the term, that's not where it was at. I think there was still a lot of confusion in the daycare space with respect to the communications from the department. So I hope that good communication continues moving forward.
Does the Minister believe the funding is adequate to support our current system of subsidized daycare? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, definitely in our February sitting, we spoke a lot about wage grids and about funding to the sector. It was repeated quite a bit that in order to be able to increase the wage grid to be more on par, for example, with education assistants in our education system, that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment would need additional funding to be able to do that. That I have not been shy about repeating and, to be honest, I was surprised not to see an ask for additional ELCC funding come out of the report that was tabled by Regular Members earlier this week. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to follow up a little on my colleague from Range Lake's comments around the funding.
First of all, I mean, you know, we've moved the needle a little on this for sure in the past few months. I keep in regular contact with the Children's First Society in Inuvik, and I know the Minister's been working hard with the territorial society as well and we have moved the needle a little up there, and it looks like they're not in the dire situation they were in and that it seems like their operation is now moving forward, which is great. And the $10 million is great. But, we are still in trouble. And I know the Minister knows that as well. I appreciate that the number of vacancy the number of spaces required is not tracked or waiting lists or whatever. But anecdotically, we know that we're in trouble in that we know, for example, Children's First Society has told me that if they had another building the same size they have now, they would fill it. You know, granted they could find professionals to work in there, but. So we know there's certainly a huge need in my community. We've gotten emails, and I know the Minister's gotten them as well, from medical professionals in my community saying, we're going to have to leave because we just can't find child care. And it's unfortunate because they enjoy working there and enjoy living there but the bottom line is, unless they get some help with, you know, with daycare, they're not going to be able to stay which is very, very troubling.
So I guess, you know, my question is, yes, we've got it here but what I'd like to ask the Minister and I know MLA Testart had said basically the same thing, what do you need? Because we know we have a problem. If it's a question of we need to put more funding into this, what do you need? And I'm sure the department has done some work on that, you know, in order. Because if we don't provide suitable daycare, we are going to lose, again, as I spoke about in many Member statements, we're going to lose talent, or we've lost talent. People are leaving. Doctors, teachers. And if they can't get suitable child care, they can't come here. And it's unfortunate. So I guess, yeah, my first question is what do you need? What would be your ask? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the goal is for our child care providers to be paid on par with education assistants across the territory, then the ask would need to be $3.5 million for wages and $3.5 million for compensation and benefits.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, excellent. So my obvious question is, then, why is that not in here? Because I think it should be if we need it. So if we need that, let's get it in the budget.
Would that then so are we talking, then, about being able to provide more spaces based on that or just that's what we need to maintain our current levels of 1,956?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister to the question.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that would be to support recruitment and retention. So it would be for both of those. And just in regards to why is it not in here, you know, there are a lot of difficult decisions to make. I am sure that every single one of the Ministers you will see come sit in this chair would say that, you know, if $20 million fell into their pockets tomorrow, they could have it spent in a minute and so this is why we have these difficult jobs is we have to decide where we're going to put that money and what the priorities are going to be right now given our fiscal situation. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
I find this very frustrating. I do. Because this is such an important issue, and we look at you know, we regularly have we approve supplementals for infrastructure projects that are tens of millions of dollars over budget that we either mismanaged or got out of control. We can blame COVID and so on and so forth. And something like this, something like this that's just so important, to keep professional people in our territory, not only providing the services of whether it be doctors or nurses or teachers or lawyers or child care workers, but also coaching our kids in hockey and buying the groceries at our grocery stores and things like that that I've railed on about in this legislature about keeping people here, keeping those tax dollars here, to me, again, if we require $7 million, that $7 million should be there, full stop, and we find that money. And I get it. We've got tough decisions to make but this shouldn't be one of them. We should make sure that we have adequate child care for anybody who wants to live in this North, in the territories. And then does the department have a plan for looking at the additional spaces that we need over and above that as well? I mean, you said we had 1,956, 308 in the Beaufort Delta. Again, and I know it's anecdotal, I know we don't track that, but we do know we need it. I hear it from other Members, and I hear it from members in the community. What would be a longterm plan to ensure that we're, again, looking at investing in more facilities and increasing those spaces? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I absolutely agree with the Member that child care is very important. You know, having been a selfemployed individual when I had my three children at home, if I did not go to work there was there was no sick days. There's no sick days when you're selfemployed so I absolutely understand that.
As far as what is going on in the territory right now in order to create spaces, when we talk about policy change and policy evolution, one of the things that happened in the territory for the first time ever is if you live in public housing and you want to open a day home tomorrow, that will not be an impediment. So right now, we have 14 communities in the Northwest Territories that do not have any child care facilities, any licensed child care facilities. People in public housing can open a day home, and ECE will work with them to do that. We have early learning and child care coordinators who do that fine work and work very hard to try to make sure that people are supported to open day homes. And so that is something that can happen right now in the territory. Just last month, we had a visit from a federal minister to help make an announcement of $10.6 million over the next few years in order to inject infrastructure funding in our early learning and child care facilities in the Northwest Territories. So whether that is renovating a space to make it conducive to support daycare spaces in a community or in a town, that funding is there. It is also available for new builds. And so what we're doing right now is working with child care providers, working with Indigenous governments, working with education bodies, in order to determine how those dollars are going to start flowing out of the GNWT and into communities so that we can start working on these 75 spaces as quickly as possible. And anecdotically, you know, I know that, for example the community of Fort Smith, very, very open and honest, very beautiful facility they have and that they're operating out of right now. They could fill another facility tomorrow. Inuvik, you've spoken about, same situation. Yellowknife, same situation. Norman Wells, ready to go with a child care facility. So the need absolutely is there. The department is, you know, working as hard as it can to make sure that we are advocating at a federal level for additional funding and making sure that the feds also understand where we are at financially. And I know that we're not the only jurisdiction having that conversation. These agreements were put in place before record inflation, and that message is definitely being shared with the federal government as well. But we are working as hard as we can with what we have and ensuring that we are being as supportive as possible to Northerners who want to set up day homes because we absolutely value them, and we rely on the good work that they do.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, again, like, I appreciate the work that your department's done on this. Again, you know, from all indications from the Children's First Society in Inuvik, you know, they're very appreciative of the work that's been done by you and your department. And that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying I want to give you more money. I think you need more money. We need to continue this. We need to make sure that we got it looked after. That's great, that people in public housing can open day homes. I encourage people all the time, hey, if you're at home, open a day home. Hey, it's good income, and you're providing for the community. So you may have answered this question I wasn't sure not that you went on a little long or anything.
Is there startup program funding available for people still and I know this, I was at a trade show in Inuvik when it was brought up. I think ITI or someone had they had a trade show, and they talked about is there funding available for those who are interested in starting a day home? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The short answer to that is yes.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
That's it on this section. But more money. I want that $7 million in here.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Of the 1,956 child care spaces that you just mentioned, so can you tell me how many of those are in Tlicho region? Or is this number part of Tlicho region, or are they excluded?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Chair, the spaces in Tlicho region would be licensed spaces so any space that is licensed would be included in that 1,956.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Because the Minister mentioned North Slave, and I've been saying for quite some time that, you know, Tlicho regions. I want to know about the Tlicho region because we're not part of the North Slave. So North Slave consists of, as I've said before, Tu NedheWiilideh's riding as well, you know, so but if you have the number, it would be nice, you know. I would like to hear that number.
And I know that in small communities, due to the populations, I know many of the communities are not going to have child care centre, daycare centre. So how many licensed day home is there in small communities?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would need to come back to the Member with that type of specific information about numbers for Tlicho communities. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
(audio) talk about it too that we need more child care spaces. And I know that in Tlicho region, we do have a waitlist for child care services or child care space within the licensed daycare centres. And at this time, we don't have new daycare centres. We have daycare centres that are from houses that were retrofitted, you know, fixed up to the standard, but there's Gameti, there's Behchoko, Whati. I know there was one in Wekweeti too. But this all depends on the population. So in Gameti alone, they're using Tlicho government office building, and I know they've been asking for new daycare centre in that community, and Whati as well and Behchoko as well. So I'm just wondering if the Minister is working with the Tlicho government to build more daycare centres, you know, and improve daycare centres and rather than what we have right now. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, in the $10.6 million that was mentioned, that federal funding announcement, how those dollars are going to roll out, that plan is being worked on in conjunction with sector stakeholders as well as Indigenous governments and education bodies to make sure that we're all working together. I know that a lot of this comes down to us making sure that we're stacking funding together, that we're working together with additional funding mechanisms to bring it all together and make sure that we are doing what we can with the dollars we have to create more spaces. I'd also just like to take this opportunity to say that if the Member knows anybody in any of those communities that would like to open a you know, a familyrun day home, that the department would absolutely be more than happy to speak with any of those people and let them know of the funding that is available to see that happen. Thank you.
