Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to follow up with questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment as well. When we talk about educating and getting our residents out into the real world with a quality education, it’s all got to start somewhere and where that starts is with early childhood development. Specifically with licenced daycare organizations that we work with, this government funds licenced daycares.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, when was the funding policy on how we fund licenced daycares last reviewed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The last overall review that we’ve undertaken was in 2007. With these different policies that are in place, we’ve talked about conducting a thorough review, and that’s been identified as part of the Early Childhood Development Framework and Action Plan that’s been presented to us by the selected groups as well.
Through the educational childhood programing, we’ve also talked about allocation of funding, and those are some of the discussions we are currently having. But the last changes in the review have taken place in 2007. Mahsi
That brings up concerns. So, over the last eight years we’ve been following a policy for the way we fund our daycares the same way, and in that time, whether the funding pot that we’ve had, we’ve also had an increase in daycare operators throughout the Northwest Territories. I see that in the budget address there’s $1.12 million that’s being allocated to early childhood to improve childhood outcomes. A lot of that money is going into wages and training.
I’d like to ask the Minister, when he’s looking at putting those out into the communities, can he take a look at where we have the highest cost of living or where there’s the greatest need to put these dollars, whether it’s here in Yellowknife, whether it’s in Fort Smith or in Inuvik, where there’s the highest need for the increases and the distribution of these funds. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what we will be doing. There are funds that have been identified as part of a child and family resource centre that we’re fully aware of. Not only that but there’s also a public awareness of the overall importance of early childhood development throughout the Northwest Territories. We’ve allocated some funds towards that as well. There are also iPads for new parents. There is the early learning framework. The framework that we’ve been working on for a number of years now, now it’s ready to roll out. Also, the ECD symposium. It would involve all the stakeholders across the Northwest Territories. Also, there are scholarships for students that are pursuing early childhood development programming. We are providing funding to those individuals as well.
The reason I ask if they look at priority regions and communities is if we put this back in this formula funding that we’ve been using since 2007, that means all regions would get a share of the pie, I guess, and it’s based on enrolments. You might have a region or a community that might not have high enrolments in daycares when this Junior Kindergarten came into effect, because now we’re getting more people out of the daycares, so it’s definitely affecting enrolments, so I’m glad that he’s doing that.
One area that I want to touch on with the daycares is these inspections. There was a news report that was given out not too long ago and why these inspections are not made public. If you or I or anybody that wants to put a child in daycare, we want to make sure that daycare is safe, it is healthy and it is adequate for our residents.
Can the Minister let us know why these inspections aren’t made public?
With any inspection, it is done on an annual basis. My department is also currently developing a way to share the inspection reports with the public with respect to accessing information. We still have to work with the process with the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. We are currently working at that level within the department. We’re making improvements along the way and this is one of the areas as part of our communication dialogue.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last two years our population has decreased, and if it wasn’t for births and some of the people moving in, it would have a drastic effect on us. In the small communities it’s having a drastic effect on licenced daycare facilities.
I’d like to ask the Minister, are there any other subsidies that some of our daycares can access that will help them keep the doors open, keep the lights on and provide a service for our families, our parents in the communities?
In addition to a direct subsidy that the Member is referring to, we also provide daycare operators and also residents. Residents may also be eligible to helping out with the offset of the costs of daycare. It’s just part of the options that we work with across the Northwest Territories. There’s also income assistance child care allowance that is provided as financial support to parents so that they can participate in the labour force and pursue education or training opportunities. Those are just some of the areas that we continue to push forward as part of our subsidy towards the daycare operators. We’ll do what we can to offset the costs as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
