Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of us Members today have spoken about the lack of daycare space and the need for capital investment in daycare infrastructure. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, adequate space for childcare has been an ongoing concern for some time. We all know that. I would like to ask the Minister: does the department believe that the public or market is responsible for delivering the necessary space to house daycares and that entrepreneurs, NGOs, or parents should be solely responsible for the capital investment for these facilities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that, within the Government of the Northwest Territories, we do try not to disturb market communities where there is a viable opportunity to make money. Why would the government be doing that when private individuals could be making that? I adhere to that policy. I agree with it. However, when it comes to daycares, daycares are very expensive. It is difficult to operate them. My own experience operating a daycare for many years previously, we just scraped by. So I think that the government does have a responsibility at this point, and we are trying to help. When daycares start up, there is $25,000 for a start-up fee that they can get. They can get $10,000 for health and safety monies. If they are looking at expanding their daycares, they can get money for that. We subsidize a daily rate for every daycare; every licensed daycare provider gets daily rates ranging between per part-time/full-time $19.81 a day to up to $49.56 per day per child in communities. So we are subsidizing the daycares directly. We are subsidizing the licensed daycare staff. There is a subsidy that we give, a staff grant, on a quarterly basis to every employee that is in a licensed daycare. So, although it is not everything and we are not providing a hundred percent, we are trying our best to actually support daycares, as well, through our programs.
Thank you to the Minister for her reply. There is no denying that everybody is very appreciative of the department's support through their programs and subsidies for daycare and childcare. That is very much appreciated. The Minister talked about market communities, but we also have non-market communities. In particular, as the honourable Member from Yellowknife Centre mentioned earlier, we have 11 communities that have no childcare whatsoever. So I would like to ask the Minister: how is the Minister attracting investment in childcare centres in the 11 communities without childcare services?
Eleven communities not having any daycare services, it identifies a problem. It is a bigger problem than that. Many communities, not only do they not have daycares, they don't have any early childhood development support whatsoever. I have said over and over in the House how important it is to have supports for parents and for children. Not all parents have babies and know how to take care of them. I, myself, with my first child, didn't even know how to bathe my baby. We need supports for parents. The 11 communities, however, Mr. Speaker, the majority are smaller communities. The number of children who would be accessing those programs, a licensed daycare centre would not be financially viable for the community to do, so we are really trying to advocate for licensed family daycare homes. Small communities are very community-focused. I have said that many times. We know that there are qualified people who have the right attitude and stuff. We are going to try to support them with the skills. We are actively trying to get people within those communities to provide support. If it can't be a licensed childcare centre, then we are trying to get licensed day homes. Come to us if I can put anything out in the public. Come to us if you are even interested. We will walk you through it. We will help you with the applications. We need to support our children as best as possible.
Again, thank you to the Minister. It sounds like there might be some hope as it relates to possibly starting up at least some daycare homes in some of the communities that have no childcare whatsoever at this time. I would like to mention that this government has been asked in the past to support universal childcare, and, essentially, it has rejected the idea due to the projected annual costs, However, investment in childcare facilities could arguably be a better long-term commitment to the challenges facing adequate childcare, so I would like to ask the Minister: will the Minister make a commitment to bring a department plan forward to her Cabinet colleagues or to FMB to support additional or new funding for critical daycare infrastructure?
Absolutely. One of the mandate commitments actually within this 18th Legislative Assembly developed by all Members, I have to give credit to all everyone, was to develop a plan for accessible daycare, so I have the full intention to fulfill that commitment. It is a commitment not only that I, as the Minister, but also on a personal level, that I think is important, and, at that point, once we have a plan, I am hoping that all Members will support the plan as we move forward.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's comments there. What I am talking about a little bit more specifically is about a commitment to funding dollars that will actually go towards building infrastructure like daycare facilities, and so I appreciate that that would have to probably be a new ask because, if you were to take that away currently from the department, then some other program or service might have to suffer. I would like to ask the Minister: the investment in new infrastructure of any kind of course is significant. We all know that. If the department or the government can't make the commitment to new money for childcare infrastructure, can the government find ways to support those groups or individuals who might consider it through the form of, say, grants, guaranteed loans, or even federal matching dollar programs that might be available for new daycare facilities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do appreciate the Member's acknowledgment that our capital budget is being passed. We are at the end of the Legislative Assembly. There will be no new capital budgets coming forward in the term of this Assembly. I mean we have a 20-year capital plan, so, even when I found out there were difficulties with a roof in a school, it was a stress. I had to go for supplementary funding for that. So there is no extra money at this point to actually provide capital for daycare centres. It is quite expensive. I think that, one, we need to put it in a transition report. I think we need to remember, whoever is in this House the next Assembly, to please put it on a mandate. I think we need to. It is critical. We need to have that, yes, any support we can give. Even with the centre in Yellowknife that was struggling, I met with them personally. I thought of all kinds of ways. Can we give advances towards their operational? Because, like I say, we give between $19 to $50 almost a day. Could we advance that kind of funding to support them? Federally, I am willing to look at. I don't know what they can offer, but I am willing to look at it. I am willing. I give the commitment, that my department will do whatever we can do to support any licensed daycare centre or family daycare centre that is willing to operate in the Northwest Territories, to the best of our ability. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
