Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask the Minister of ECE a few questions here on early childhood. I’m very supportive of the Early Childhood Small Communities Initiative that’s been announced in the budget. It shows some good coordination. I’m wondering what the deficit is. I’m assuming this is known. What is the deficit in the number of child care spaces in the Northwest Territories and how many new daycare spaces does the government plan to open or support in the coming year?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. A couple questions there. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Early Childhood Program delivery is, of course, our first priority as a government and also with my specific department of Education, Culture and Employment. I do not have the breakdown of what the Member is referring to as a deficit, but we are investing more money, as you know, within the budget that will be before us and that we’ll be discussing further on the huge investment that we’re allotting for that particular area of early childhood. So we’ll continue to invest in those areas, because this is a prime example of a worthwhile investment into a system.
I appreciate those comments. I am, once again, very supportive of the program. I think it would be worthwhile determining what the needs are out there for number of spaces. That would help inform the program and make it more effective. I wonder if the Minister would commit to determining how many child care spaces are needed and, once again, I’m wondering how many new ones are being supported this year.
When we talk about the early childhood spaces, we do have some throughout the Northwest Territories. We have roughly... I have a number here of 1,800 as a number. But it does fluctuate, the population on these spaces that we have. But I can certainly provide that detailed information for the Member that we have on hand on the early childhood development programming and the needs of these individuals in the communities. That can be available to the Members.
I appreciate that commitment to determine how many child care spaces are needed compared to what we now have. The other question I have is, our birth rate in terms of annual numbers is fairly predictable. Is the capacity in place to provide healthy pregnancy, infant health, and parenting skills programming to all who are likely to need these services? I realize some of those are Health and Social Services but, as I say, I’m impressed with the coordination. Is the capacity in place to provide healthy pregnancy, infant health and parenting skills programming to all who are likely to need those services now?
I was just chatting with my colleague here. Yes, the health centres do provide those services. Not only that, within the early childhood space the Member is referring to, capacity, we do have the capacity. If not, then the funding that’s been identified is available to organizations that would like to maybe open up a space in that area. Yes, there is a collaboration and cooperation by Health and Social Services and our Department of Education, Culture and Employment on providing more services in this area.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that response. I would like to ask the Minister, a particular need is for spaces for infants. That seems to be the bottleneck and perhaps understandably. It’s very challenging. Is the Minister supporting the provision of child care spaces for infants and where are we at on that? Is there sufficient provision of those spaces out there? I understand there isn’t. What is the Minister doing to provide that?
That infant provision is part of the ongoing discussions that we’re having, whether it be the expansion of the area. But within the early childhood spaces, we do have infants in our spaces. Within the five regions, as I indicated, the 1,800 spaces available, they also have a child care area and nursery school, after-school program and family day home. So they do take in infants as well. So we’ll continue to work with that with those organizations that we sponsor.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
