Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that from the conversations I'm having that $10 a day childcare helps families, but it seems to be hurting ELCC operators at the scale. So the issue is not so much that the wage ceiling as the Minister said in one of her earlier replies today. It's the funding that's allocated by the GNWT. So what I would like to know, Mr. Speaker -- and maybe I'll just try and put it more clearly -- is operators can't make up the difference due to caps on what they can charge families, the Minister mentioned fundraising, I believe. Is there any other way right now currently that the Minister can see to making things more manageable for operators at a larger scale? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are certainly some options for other funding. I did use the example of fundraising. If there is another source that a childcare facility is looking at bringing in to access funding, certainly would want to know about it and be able to work alongside the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to explore that option. We certainly do want our childcare facilities to stay open and stay operational.
I think a couple of things here, Mr. Speaker, I will absolutely acknowledge that the original agreement was signed before extreme inflation across the country, and this has certainly been something that has been routinely raised at our federal, territorial, provincial tables by multiple jurisdictions, and there have been some responses to that in allowing different operators to bring up their wages so that there is parity between them.
And the other piece I wanted to raise for the Member is because the wage grid hasn't been fully implemented, it means that those increases in payment have not been felt by our early childhood educators. But what I can say here, Mr. Speaker, is every single childcare provider across the territory saw an increase to their funding post implementation of this agreement. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. One option that has been floated to me by the board member of this operator is possibly asking families to have a membership fee, but that doesn't seem to be allowed by the regulations. Is that something that the Minister could contemplate? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I received the letter from the Member, I did go through it line by line. I highlighted different sections of the letter and different pieces that were raised by the childcare provider, and membership fees was one of them and so that is something that I have put to the department and would be happy to loop back around once we've had the opportunity to look into that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And just to note that part of what I was trying to highlight in my Member's statement, and in my last question a few minutes ago, was that adult education is not just about job training but it also can include parents wanting to improve their literacy and learning in conjunction with their young and not-so-young children. So my question now is about family based literacy and learning.
My understanding is that the GNWT was exploring a model of early childhood learning that was centered around providing resources and involving all the family members; however, that seems to have fallen off the radar with the introduction of junior kindergarten. So can the Minister explain what is ECE doing to promote a family-based literacy and learning model instead of just focusing on school-based learning? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for coming back to this question.
Mr. Speaker, it certainly has not fallen off the table, and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment does afford some funding for family literacy and then also does afford funding, like, directly to communities, directly to NGOs, and then also enlists the NWT Literacy Council to afford some of that. So in 2024-2025, ECE provided the NWT Literacy Council with $420,000 in funding. And this funding is used to train, mentor, and support community members to design, develop, and deliver community-based family literacy programs. And the importance here is working with -- or NWT literacy works with communities to ensure that that programming is culturally relevant and is available to be used for all official languages in the Northwest Territories.
In addition to that, ECE also delivers the community literacy development fund, and this is financial help for community organizations that want to do local programs to increase literacy skills and also literacy awareness, and so we've got kind of two kind of core main pieces there that still do afford funding to communities for that.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that answer. So in my discussions with the NWT Literacy Council, I understand that there's huge demand for those family literacy programs and they could definitely be much expanded to meet that demand. So, in this era of fiscal sustainability, has the department examined not only the costs, you know, in grant and contribution funding but also the short and long-term benefits that could come from an even more concerted focus on family literacy programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for that question. There's certainly not only literacy programs happening through these organizations, there's also awareness and encouragement happening even from our schools themselves to encourage literacy in the home. And with our new training certification wage grid as well with our ELCCs, this type of work in reading to children and such is also, as we know, happening in our daycares and our day home providers as well. And so it's not just a solution that requires more funding, although the NWT Literacy Council does amazing work, and certainly want to see opportunities like that grow in the territory but, really, it's about looking at this and determining how we all can help support literacy across the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister point to where in this government's business plans or strategies she can show that we have a real serious focus on improving family literacy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that we have a real focus from this Assembly on supporting healthy families, and I think that literacy is a huge component of family units and family structures. And so what I would say to that is that has everything to do with, you know, how we are growing babies on the inside and continuing to support children once they're on the outside and how we're supporting teens and adults and communities. I think literacy and the health of our family units and the health of our communities absolutely relates to literacy. And so I think that has to do with everything that we're doing as an Assembly, whether that's ensuring that we are supporting residents to be involved in housing and to be involved in the trades and building and supporting of stable housing, whether that is through education pursuits and ensuring that we're building a strong economic foundation for the entire territory, whether that is about health care. And we want more residents to be involved directly in health care across the territory so I would say that literacy really is the underpinning of all of these pieces, and so certainly something that we want to continue to invest in. But investments don't only come in the form of money, and so I think that investment really -- you know, it comes from absolutely everybody. It's even within the work that we're doing in Education, Culture and Employment in Indigenous languages. It relates to absolutely everything, Mr. Speaker, and I agree with the Member, that literacy is incredibly important, and we need to work both wholistically and strategically as a territory to ensure that we're supporting literacy from start to finish. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the process and transparency. That's my only focus around this, not about the specifics of what may or may not be happening, so just to make sure it's fully clear. And, of course, the rules of anticipation, so the public's aware, Mr. Speaker, is that we're not allowed to talk about something before the Assembly or coming before the Assembly. So I'm just about the process.
Mr. Speaker, when the Minister will say we have an arm's length process, you know, the reality is the Minister is the arm and she is the process, so when we have a budget that is bigger than ECE and when we have a budget that is practically 20 percent of the Assembly's budget, are we voting on this like a what's called a black budget? And that's a covert type of budget where we don't get to see the specifics but we have to vote on the number. How are we serving the public best by not having any clue about what's being offered up in that budget? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, as I mentioned before, like, we're having this conversation about the college. We're having these conversations about NTPC. We're having these conversations about all of these -- you know, that they determine and their expertise within NTHSSA will determine, by using the priorities that are given, and like I said, I will share the mandate with the Members and, you know, and table it in this House on the direction that is given to them. That was the same thing that was given to the direction of the governing council before and so they -- they build their budget and based on the services that are provided that -- you know, that we have currently, and therefore that is ongoing. You know, whether or not we're going to change that today, I don't think that's going to happen. So I mean, we can have further conversations about this and I mean, like -- I'll just leave it at that, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, I want to reaffirm it's about process and transparency I'm after. And just for definition, so people know what it means, a black budget appropriation is when a government's budget is allocated in a classified manner that's secret, Mr. Speaker.
So we don't know what's being approved. So I'm asking with respect to the dollar amounts, what type of public transparency and discussion can we have here in this House and before the public before these types of things are approved? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to take that question on notice. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when will the Minister have access to NTHSSA's budget? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Sorry, colleagues, that's already been taken as notice, it's close enough, from the Minister on that. So any other oral questions? Oral questions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the following questions with respect to health care management to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Please provide the following:
How many full-time physicians were hired by the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) last fiscal year;
How many full-time physicians left their employment with the NTHSSA last fiscal year;
A breakdown of the reasons for why full-time physicians left their employment with NTHSSA last fiscal year, including resignation, term expiration, retirement, termination, and any other relevant reason;
A breakdown of the full-time physicians who left their employment with NTHSSA last fiscal year by practice and specialty; and,
A breakdown of locum versus resident full-time physicians who left their employment with NTHSSA last fiscal year.
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Canada Energy Regulator's 2023-2024 Annual Report of Activities under the Northwest Territories' Oil and Gas Operations Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Tabling of documents. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 17, Municipal and Community Affairs Statutes Amendment Act; and Statement of Consistency for Bill 17, Municipal and Community Affairs Statutes Amendment Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Tabling of documents. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Partnership and Business Names Act; and, a Statement of Consistency for Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Partnership and Business Names Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Tabling of documents. Member from Yellowknife North.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the Dechinta Return on Investment Report prepared by the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move, second by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 17, Municipal and Community Affairs Statutes Amendments Act, be read for the first time.
This bill is amending three Acts: The Fire Prevention Act, the NWT 911 Act, and the Western Canadian Lotteries Act. This bill establishes the Municipal and Community Affairs Statutes Amendments Act will adjust the reporting timelines of the reports required under these three Acts to provide sufficient time for MACA to collect valuable data from various sources ensuring accurate and comprehensive reporting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. The question is shall Bill 17 be read for a second time. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried. Bill 17 has been read a second time and will be referred to a standing committee of the Assembly for further consideration.
---Carried
Second reading of bills. Minister of Justice.
