Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address my questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I was struck by a comment that the Minister made last week from Thursday, actually, when he was responding to a question from Mr. Beaulieu. I quote from unedited Hansard, a portion where Minister Lafferty stated, “Mr. Speaker, just for the Member’s awareness that we are looking at moving early childhood education into schools since enrolment is down in the Northwest Territories.”
I would like to ask the Minister if he could expand on that statement a little bit. It is not an idea which I had any awareness of. I wonder if this is something that he could elaborate on for my benefit. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are exploring all options as we can to deal with enrolment challenges that are at our doorstep when it comes to all schools. As you know, throughout the Northwest Territories, enrolment is down. This is just a preliminary discussion that we are having on possibly having the early childhood as part of the school programming to increase the enrolment issues at the schools.
Mr. Speaker, I can certainly provide detailed information once it is available to us. All I can say now is, I guess, a preliminary discussion that we are initiating and discussing. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that it is preliminary and that it is probably in discussion stages, but if I can get a little bit more information. Early childhood can span a fairly large number of years. Is the Minister talking about early childhood such as pre-kindergarten or are we talking about early childhood such as from zero to five years of age? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, those are discussions that we need to have with experts at the school board level and also with our department. Those are the types of options that we may have to deal with whether it be zero to five or pre-kindergarten. Mr. Speaker, again, this is all too preliminary. We just threw out an idea so people can grasp of sharing some ideas or suggestions on how we can improve enrolment issues throughout the Northwest Territories. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear the Minister talk about getting some information and some involvement from school boards and so on. I think they would be extremely interested in providing some input to the department on this particular issue. I think also that exploring this issue is going to have an impact on businesses who operate daycare centres. I wonder if the Minister can talk about if there is any consideration at this point on how businesses which operate as daycare centres or early child care centres, how they are going to be considered if they are brought in under the GNWT. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we currently provide funding to these facilities and establishments. That would be the daycare, the home care and so forth, other areas that we sponsor through our early childhood programming. Mr. Speaker, those will definitely be taken into consideration. We definitely don’t want to have an impact whether they be in businesses. We want to come up with a solution to deal with enrolment issues. Mr. Speaker, yes, those types of discussions need to happen now so we can resolve this issue and come up with a solution. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am frowning because I don’t really understand how bringing early childhood children into the schools is going to deal with the enrolment issue, but that is another issue. I just would like to have the Minister confirm for me, he mentioned that he wants to hear from various school board authorities and I presume also operators of daycares and child cares. Does that mean that he is open at this point to comments from these particular groups, agencies and individuals? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, yes, we are always open to ideas and suggestions from various groups from the community members on how to improve our educational system, whether it be enrolment issues, the space issues. We are challenged for the space issue in Yellowknife, for example. Mr. Speaker, that is why part of the educational overall plan is to highlight the key areas. Mr. Speaker, yes, we are open to any ideas or suggestions from the general public-at-large. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
