Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement and pose some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on early childhood education.
Mr. Speaker, I recognize that we have many capacity issues throughout the North, it’s difficult to find qualified child care workers and we have high costs and affordability questions to deal with, but I really do consider this issue to be possibly the most important opportunity this government has to contribute to a positive future, so it’s of the utmost importance. I’d like to ask the Minister first: what progress has been made in the past, say, 12 to 18 months on our early childhood education programs? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the Early Childhood Program, there have been some changes to benefit the communities that we service. Part of the ongoing initiative, the ongoing improvement of the program is the last two years, April 1, 2007, there has been an increase in the contribution, so that can offset or allow operators to increase staff wages and improve benefits for early childhood staff. So those are the areas where there have been some changes. Also, since 2007-2008, the department assists eligible providers with basic rent or mortgage expenses. Those are new initiatives that have been undertaken.
Mr. Speaker not only that, but just on the overall contribution, back in 2000-2001 it was a $2.6 million annual contribution. Now we have, in 2009-2010, upwards of $4.7 million. So we have increased and made progress. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister for those comments. I am aware that the funding has increased and I did recognize some of those things in the statement. Thanks for that review. But there are so many more opportunities that I’m hearing about. There still are simply not enough child care spaces in our facilities in Yellowknife or the other communities. The issue of wages remains as a fundamental one. I suspect we need direct subsidies for those wages to get the qualified help and realize the opportunity that’s here. Is the department looking into subsidizing the wages for qualified child care staff in those facilities? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, our contribution is towards the organization and they hire their staff and they pay their staff the wages and also benefits, similar to what we do with the school funding formula. We give a lump sum funding to the schools based on enrolment and then they hire their professional staff. So it’s a similar arrangement that we have with them.
We’re happy to announce that as of this year there have been 55 successful early childhood education candidates surrounding 14 communities. So that’s one of the successes that we like to show the Northwest Territories. So we continue to improve our programs, Mr. Speaker, but those are the formulas that we currently undertake with operators. Mahsi.
Thanks again for those comments to the Minister. Of course, the fact remains that they don’t seem to be getting the qualified help or are able to keep competent staff because of the wage problem, so I’m hoping further attention will be focused on that, perhaps in more direct ways than a general contribution.
Training is indeed an important issue and that’s been raised before, the training at Aurora College in the past has not met the national standards. What is being done to improve the Aurora College courses to ensure that our workers do meet those standards? Thank you.
Mahsi. The training program that’s been delivered through Aurora College has been ongoing for a number of years now and it has been very successful to date. We produce so many early childhood workers out of that. When I quoted, the number was based on 2008-2009, 55 successful course completions by students from 14 different communities. That’s just one year. This particular program has been ongoing and certainly there’s always been room for improvement in the program. There’s an accreditation program attached to this, as well, and we’re also partnered up with other institutions and southern institutions as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are still so many questions here, but I’d like to ask if the accreditation program is implemented now and does it enable us to produce graduates who will meet those national standards that are set for child care workers? Thank you.
Mahsi. The program that has been offered by Aurora College is recognized, probably not all courses, but most of the courses are recognized by southern institutions so they can continue on to take advanced education, whether it be a diploma or a degree program. So we’re always pushing our northern college and other institutions to have an accreditation program here in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
