Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I used my Member’s statement today to talk about junior kindergarten and certainly the impact of re-profiling 7 percent of their funding model without working together with them. While I explained and it was certainly illustrated during my Member’s statement, what if we took 7 percent of the Department of ECE’s budget how they would go kicking and screaming.
Now, let’s talk about the broader picture now being forgotten about this whole situation, which are the day homes. Ironically, that’s part of the reason why this whole shift of junior kindergarten has evolved.
So, as such, what changes are now going to take effect to the day homes that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is now going to have to address? Quite frankly, there are rules that you are only allowed to have two under two; you’re only allowed to have six kids maximum. So, in essence, the government is not only taking one or two of the kids away, you’re almost destroying their funding model by potentially taking half of the kids away, which may make these day homes in Yellowknife unaffordable and certainly unfeasible Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This whole implementation of junior kindergarten has been positive news. As the Member alluded to earlier with his statement, there’s a lot of support on this particular piece of work that has been in the works for some time now, the last few years. We are mindful of the day homes, the operators in the Northwest Territories. We’re doing this for the whole Northwest Territories and the Member touched on two under two, there’s also three under three that we’re fully aware of and my department is working diligently with the operators, the day home operators and other operators within the city of Yellowknife and also in the whole Northwest Territories so we can mitigate and work and provide support to those individual operators. Taking the four-year-olds out of their facility will allow more focus on the zero to three. Those are discussions we’ve been having with the operators as well. So, we will be providing support mechanisms to those operators in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
I’m glad the Minister has started to touch on this whole broader problem, which is he says he’s mindful of day homes and certainly he’s going to look at providing support, but let’s talk turkey. What kind of support is he actually referring to, because we all know you can do two under two, as the Minister even highlighted, you can have three under three. So potentially he’s taken 50 percent of their funding model to exist away from these day homes that are trying to provide necessary daycare and certainly family support for these young people.
So, in essence, what is the Minister really doing and how much money is this going to cost this government that he’ll have to come back to the Assembly and ask for? Thank you.
Mahsi. Those are the key detailed discussions that we are currently having with the operators to justify and find out the cost factor. As the Member knows, there are various subsidies available to the operators, whether it be the rent, the mortgage, the support mechanism is currently there to subsidize those operators. There is part of the O and M as well. Based on the discussions that we’re going to be having, we need to move forward on that and then provide feedback on what’s the best approach. Those are the discussions that we’ll continue to have with the open dialogue with them.
It was just a few days ago in this House this Minister issued an edict saying that it will be done, it shall be done, and it’s going to start this year. Not only that, he said he was going to solve a problem, which is there weren’t services available in the communities. All noble things that we support, so let’s stop focusing on these types of things.
Let’s get back to the money. If you’re going to issue these types of edicts and tell the NWT residents you’re doing this and, darn it, it’s coming, how much money is this happening and why haven’t you planned this and costed this out? Why are we sitting here having discussions when we should already know that if you’re taking 50 percent of these funding models away from these good folks at home taking care of children, what have you left them? You should know what this is going to cost before you pull the legs out from underneath them.
We have to keep in mind that we are providing free junior kindergarten across the whole Northwest Territories, and especially those 10 communities that are without licenced child care programming. The communities will definitely be benefiting from this program that we’re initiating. It’s a three-year phased approach, so the daycare, the home care operators… Again, I must emphasize that we are providing the supporting mechanism in place. It’s been there before, it’s always been there, and we’re going to enhance it further as we move forward on implementing a junior kindergarten. There is a lot of support and we’re moving forward on this.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, yet again the Minister tries to divide this as a big town against small town, against small communities, whatever the case may be. The fact is that there seems to be no plan whatsoever to cover this funding model, and it’s okay, Mr. Minister, you can say you just don’t know. When you do that and you feel better, we can all start working and building from there.
When the Minister says we’re going to enhance, let’s put the dollar on the table and tell me what type of dollar you’re going to have to come back to this Assembly and ask for, because we want to know because nobody out there knows, and all they know is they’re losing half their kids, which is their funding stream because you’re taking them away. How are they going to operate?
It was in this House that I mentioned the zero to three, what kind of funding that will be allocated based on what their needs are, whether it be the cribs and other certain necessities that are required. Those are the supports that we are going to be providing to the zero to three, the day homes, the operators in the Northwest Territories. I can lay that out to the Members again, the detailed information. I’ll be more than glad to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Yakeleya.
