Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what part of the agreement with the federal government for affordable childcare doesn't allow larger operators for making financially sound decisions like growing reserve fund or modest salary increases for workers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Canada-NWT Canada-wide ELCC agreement requires that the GNWT implement a certification system and a wage grid for early childhood educators and also that it achieves the average $10 a day per childcare fees for families in the Northwest Territories. However, the agreement does not define specifics on how the GNWT is to implement the certification or wage grid. That's something that we were able to do here in the territory by meeting with our stakeholders.
The wage grid identifies an hourly minimum that an educator must receive but doesn't set out the maximum, and the regulations do not prevent them from going above that.
In regards to a contingency fund, the centre-based operators are allowed to maintain funds as long as the contingency fund does not exceed an amount equal to three months or more than three months of operating expenses, and that amount can also exceed those three months as long as the funds don't come from ECE. So, for example, if they are doing fundraising and events like that, they are able to keep that amount and it doesn't count towards their three-month maximum. And in addition to that, there is nothing in the regulations that prohibits a licensed centre-based operator from accessing alternative fundraising -- or sorry, alternative sources of funding like fundraising, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Okay, so the math is not mathing still for me because -- I'm happy that the Minister has explained that a little bit better; it helps me put things together, but I also understand that the pressures of operating such a large daycare, largest in the territory, mean that there are cost pressures that are not adequately being addressed under these parameters.
So, Mr. Speaker, is it possible for the Minister to amend the regulations to allow for different scale and scope of operators to exist in the territory noting that, of course, daycare looks different in Tsiigehtchic than it does in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member. And I think it's fair to recognize that there have certainly -- I don't think it's a secret to anybody in this room, there's certainly been some growing pains as far as implementing our $10 dollar a day average childcare across the territory.
Our existing wage grid regulations have not fully come into force. So right now, ECE is working with operators to determine what that looks like, so with our centre-based operators. And that also means that not everyone has gone through the process of doing their certification and so not everyone is seeing the -- or sorry, early childhood operators across the territory are not yet seeing the increases based on their level of experience and as well their level of education. So until we see the regulations fully come into force, we won't be able to see how it's working throughout the territory. And so at this time, I would say to the Member that we really need to see how it comes into force and how it ends up working out throughout the territory before we determine what is and is not working. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding -- and I've highlighted this to the Minister already -- that this operator is concerned that the ELCC staff at ECE are -- you know, not in great contact with this operator. Can the Minister work to resolve this? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am in direct contact with the senior staff of education, culture and employment seven days a week unfortunately for them, but I very much appreciate how accessible they are. And as soon as I did receive the correspondence from the MLA, I immediately did reach out to the deputy minister because like I did say last year, these relationships are paramount and we want to ensure that the childcare sector is well supported and well informed and has access to answers to their questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
