Debates of March 10, 2009 (day 26)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is also for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It’s regarding my Member’s statement earlier today. I’m wondering if funding to daycares...Well, we know it fluctuates quarterly in unpredictable ways. I’d like to know what we are doing to stabilize that funding and make it more predictable for daycares so they can provide consistent service.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly I appreciate the Member’s comment on this area. This is one of the priorities within our government, within our own department as well. Early childhood and the daycare facilities, the daycare funding is a priority for us. We do provide ongoing funding. We have increased our funding as well. Back in 2007 we increased our contribution to licensed, non-profit, early childhood providers by 30 percent. So through investment of $600,000. Also, 2007-2008 we included funding to assist eligible providers with basic rent or mortgage expenses. So the subsidy can contribute a maximum of 25 percent rental towards the mortgage expense. So those are areas we continue to improve in our programs and we continue to monitor and evaluate our programs where we need to increase funding.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. I really am appreciative of the increased funding and the help with mortgages for daycares. Specifically on the consistency and providing predictable funding, which would really help budgeting for these daycare centres, do we still penalize the daycare centres when a child is missing for five consecutive days? Do we still penalize them financially? And are we still assessing the daycares four times a year instead of providing them funding on the basis of average attendance?

The daycare funding is based on the enrolment of the children in the daycare, similar to the school operation. We continue to monitor that. We talked about it within our department how we can improve in those areas where students may be missing for up to five days. I guess you can say the organizations get less funding due to that fact. But we will continue to look at that. Certainly we continue to re-evaluate our position, our programs within our current system, again, highlighting what kind of penalization is there for an organization and how we can improve in those areas. We continue to monitor that.

I just have to comment that rather than more review and monitoring we really need actions now. Our daycares have highlighted that this is a problem. Let’s not review and monitor; let’s act on those problem areas.

Are we considering legislation or at least setting standards for early childhood and child care workers?

I believe the Member alluded to the Early Childhood Certification Program through Aurora College. We do certify them in that respect. Whether it be the legislation to, I’m not sure what the Member’s referring to, but certainly those are the areas we need to continue to discuss. I’d like to hear more feedback from the Member on where he’s going with this. Certainly we’re open to ideas and suggestions within our department. As I stated earlier, we will be going through our next phase of business planning process, so we continue to look for options from the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the issue of training our child care workers, it’s been highlighted in the past that we are not providing certified child care workers up to national standards. That’s the basic fact. We really need to address that. I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to do that. Finally, given the new recognition of the clear benefits associated with economic stimulus packages that focus actually on early childhood development and child care, what has the Minister done to increase funding this year since we’ve learned about the recession that is now impending on the Northwest Territories along with the rest of the globe?

Certainly early childhood and the language nests, more specifically, has been sunsetted by the federal government. We continue to pick up that program through our territorial government. That has been our commitment. We believe that it is an important piece of program that we need to continue with. New Initiatives Program increased funding in the early childhood. So those are the areas we continue to improve and increase our programming dollars. We continue to monitor those again. We will continue to work with the Members on updating them on current status and where we’re going at the next level. We’ll continue to work with the standing committee.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.