Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and I want to follow up on my statement. I asked a whole slew of questions in my statement and I’d like to ask some of those to the Minister now about the Early Childhood Program review, which the department has apparently been doing since sometime last fall, since September, October, I’m not exactly sure when it started.
My first question to the Minister would be to get an update on whether or not the work was done. Was the review done? There was a symposium that was supposed to be held. Can I get an update on the activities in regard to this review since last year? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Early Childhood Development Framework, the framework action plan has been in the works for quite some time now and we felt that it was necessary and important that we engaged the stakeholders, the operators, the early childhood workers, the front-line workers, the managers, and so we invited them to participate either by phone or interview or in person. So we’ve conducted those processes as well. The review also includes licensing processes and Healthy Children Initiative funding. There’s also Small Communities Initiative funding, child care subsidy funding. So the discussions, we’ve gotten feedback from a majority of the operators. I believe there’s 102 out of 113 licenced child care operators that returned the feedback. So we are currently reviewing those. The symposium that we had last year has been very successful to date. So, we wanted to have another one this year as well.
So, those are some of the processes that we are going through. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. He mentioned a lot of types of funding. My understanding was that this was a review of licenced daycare operations, governance and funding for daycare operators. I appreciate that they’re reviewing the information, but according to the terms of reference, which I found on the website, there was supposed to be a report as of the 31st of March of 2015.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, you’ve got answers from some 100-plus operators. Two things. Did it include the Montessori Children’s Centre here in Yellowknife? I don’t believe it did. Secondly, was there a report? I gather the report was not done March 31st. When is it going to be done? Thank you.
As I stated earlier, those operators in the Northwest Territories were invited for their input; and Montessori, I can’t really speak to that organization, but I’m pretty sure they were invited to provide input. If not, then they should be allowed to provide input into our Early Childhood Development Framework.
We want to hear from each and every operator in the Northwest Territories. Not only that but the terms of reference obviously stated that we needed to conclude by March 31, 2015.
The letter that I saw asking for input, there was a list of daycare operators on the back. It did not include the Montessori. I’d ask the Minister to specifically extend an invitation to the Montessori Centre to ask for input.
I thought I heard the Minister say that there are lots of things going on. I appreciate that. There’s the universal child care review that’s also being done, but I didn’t hear from the Minister when he expects that the results of this particular investigation will be coming forward. So, can I ask again, this particular looking at governance and funding of licenced daycare operators, when can we expect to see a report on this canvassing for information? Thank you.
As I stated earlier, we are compiling all of the program reviews. This Early Childhood Framework is one of them and the universal child care study, the review that’s been undertaken by my department, collecting all of the data, information and compiling all of the information within my department. We are currently reviewing those processes as well.
With respect to the dates, I won’t be able to give an answer today as to when it will be completed, but this will be a transitional document for the new government because it will deal with the new funding. The funding has been identified by the operators, what’s working, what’s not working. So, it will be a part of the transitional document that will be before this House. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister: I have to say that I am very dismayed. I am quite surprised. This is something that started last September, October, and now we have to wait until the 18th Assembly for any kind of change to take place. I’m very dismayed. I urge the Minister to get it done sooner. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. More of a comment. Mr. Moses.
