Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I look forward to following up with the Minister about that one too. Will the Minister commit to having her department look at implementing the UN convention on the rights of the child so that all decisions to remove a child from their parents are reviewed by a court -- that's in Article 9 -- and a child's right to be heard is applied. That's Article 12. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to take that information back to discuss with the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Raising the childcare issue is an interesting one, especially because we're getting e-mails real time here at the desk.
Mr. Speaker, my question back to the Minister is what -- or sorry, my question to the Minister with respect to the overall bigger picture of the issue here is what type of ability does the Minister have to reset the wage grids within the regulations as currently designed? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the wage grid for centre-based ELCC staff outlines a minimum hourly wage, and so it sets the basement of what people can get paid and then the wage grid does identify if people have different levels of education that it would go -- that minimum would go up. However, any additional wages on top of that would have to be borne by the service provider. Thank you.
Well, there's a couple problems, Mr. Speaker. One is it's the grid that's the problem and the fact that it's setting a floor but also a ceiling in some cases. So it depends on where you're sitting, Mr. Speaker.
I'm asking the Minister because the money -- the funding is tied also to the grid, the funding each daycare gets, this negatively impacts those who have had different scales and are told to maintain them at the upper scales so the funding gap then starts to widen. Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister do to address the funding gap that is caused directly by this grid. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the wage gap does not have a ceiling. So it sets the minimum hourly; it does not set the maximum. What it does do, however, or what the whole program does do, is it stipulates what parents can charge to families, and so that's where we're running into an issue here. It also stipulates, as we explored yesterday, that parents can't charge, you know, like, a membership fee, for example, because that fee would then have to be deducted from the fee that parents are charged. So what can we do?
There is, you know, always the nuclear option which is removing ourselves from the program, but that would come at a huge cost to families in the Northwest Territories. Right now, the contributions from the territorial government are $13.3 million annually and from the federal government are $20.5 million annually. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, the reason I ask for a meeting of the minds so one-off deals aren't happening, Mr. Speaker, or some daycares are being told what they want to hear but then another being told elsewhere.
Mr. Speaker, in short, they're losing employees because the grid is controlling their funding and the daycares are facing closure, probably by summer. I had asked three of them, and they were saying that's the right timeframe; we're going to run out of money. So, Mr. Speaker, when programs are being cut, outings are being cut, food is being cut, what can the Minister do to stop that tragedy? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, meetings with childcare providers are already happening. This is something that I take very seriously. I want our sector to have that stability. I think what would also be helpful, because it did come up yesterday and I do have more information, it was in regards to the ability for operators to have a contingency fund. There is the ability of them to have that with some restrictions, and they can identify -- sorry, there is a three-month cap on ELC ECE funding that can be used for a contingency fund. It says that the three-month equivalent can only equate to approximately 25 percent of a centre's annual operating expenses. And this is much greater than, for example, schools can hang onto. So I did want to stipulate that.
Another piece that was brought up as a concern was around fundraising. And so absolutely, there is an ability for people to -- or centres to be able to accept voluntary donations, fundraising, or third-party funding, and that are some of the pieces that we'll be exploring. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, an ongoing narrative for day homes in the Northwest Territories is that they're rolling in cash and are a bunch of fat cats compared to daycare centre workers and they're being held in direct contrast to one another. But ECE's own numbers show that day homes make $22 an hour, the lowest spot on the page grid. So day homes are asking me why does this narrative continue, why are day homes -- the financial limitations and their spot on the pay grid not a concern to the department? I'd like to ask the Minister that. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've never used any of the words that the Member has just outlined, neither has the department, and I see day homes as a necessary and a very much well used aspect of our childcare sector in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, day homes are asking for more flexibility. In Alberta, the regulations do allow for voluntary fees at the discretion of the operator, things like food, outings, late fees, extended hours. Can the Minister agree to allow for voluntary fees at day homes and daycare centres in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I absolutely want people to be able to access anything that we are allowed to within the contract that we have signed with the federal government. One of the pieces of that is us being able to maintain that $10 a day fee for families. Certainly, the Government of Alberta does have deeper pockets than us, and so I would commit to looking into that and where that discrepancy comes from. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. It's not a discrepancy, Mr. Speaker. It's -- I acknowledge the Minister will look into it and I thank her for that. But it's not a discrepancy. It's a regulation that allows to them to do it. So they signed on to the Canada-wide agreement, they're part of it, so will the Minister commit to reviewing the regs and reporting back to this House? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if I -- I guess the word I should have used instead of discrepancy was difference. I'm acknowledging that there is a difference between Alberta's regulations and our regulations and said to the Member that I would look into why that ability for Alberta to be different than us exists, and I am certainly committed to figuring this out. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Oral questions. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to the Commissioner's Address. Petitions. Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills. Reports of Standing and Special Committees.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Annual Report to the Legislative Assembly under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Tabling of documents. Notices of Motion. Notices of Motion for the First Reading of Bills. First Reading of Bills. Second Reading of Bills.
Colleagues, we will take a brief break.
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Thank you. Calling committee to order. I now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, the Department of Health and Social Services and, time permitting, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will proceed with the first item. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, Department of Health and Social Services, February 13, 2025. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), Main Estimates 2025-2026.
We will now consider the Department of Health and Social Services. Does the Minister of Health and Social Services wish to bring in witnesses into the House?
Okay. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.
Thank you. Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have ADM Mathison to my right, and the deputy minister Joanne Cecchetto to my left.
Thank you. Welcome. Committee, we will resume where we left off yesterday. We were considering health and social services programs, Department of Health and Social Services. This key activity begins on page 203 with information items on page 209. Are there any questions? I will begin with the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I -- yeah, to pick up where I left off yesterday, it feels like it's been years, following up on my question about programs for children and youth given the gap left by the closures of the residential treatment centres for children and youth. Can the Minister actually point to how much money in the budget is being allocated to support healing programs, treatment programs for children and youth. Is that a line that can be summarized?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don't have that level of detail here.
Okay, thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a question about the line item community, culture and innovation. So there is a significant drop in that budget. It's about half of what it was the last two years. Can the Minister explain why the drastic reduction in that line item. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that northern wellness agreement, that's being renegotiated right now, so that is why there's a reduction so those funds come directly out of that northern wellness, so as soon as those -- that agreement is finalized, then that number will change. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you for that; that does make sense. Sometimes we are caught in between funding agreements here.
Okay. Under the population and public health services line -- well, it's more in the business plan. There's a note in the business plan that there will be some kind of a transformation of the public health system. Can the Minister explain what will be involved in transforming the public health system. I mean, not all the details but what's the idea behind it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, during -- the word we don't like to use -- COVID, there were a lot of areas within our systems that we -- like, that we did not have -- that we needed to look at after going through what we had to go through and in detail, I can pass it on to the deputy minister to kind of give some little bit more in depth on what is happening in that area now, if I may, Mr. Chair.
