Merci, Monsieur le President. One of the federal government's major promises of recent years has been the creation of a national affordable childcare system in partnership with provinces and territories. While other jurisdictions have completed agreements, the Yukon signed its $10-a-day deal in July, parents here are still waiting. Media reports quote our childcare Minister as saying our deal with done by the end of the year although problems exist. One major obstacle being reported is lack of suitable buildings for new childcare spaces. Presumably creation of new spaces has to be a feature of any new agreement with the federal government.
Likewise, trained and quality staff are also a challenge. To provide the staff needed for the NWT to offer a truly universal childcare scheme, we will have to train a lot more staff we will hire outside the Northwest Territories. As we see with nurses, that can be expensive but without staff an agreement with the federal government is not a solution.
Then there is the issue of how any new childcare programs are going to be coordinated with existing programs, much of them offered by regional Indigenous governments.
These problems - space, staff, and flexible rollout - may be big but the need for affordable and universal childcare is the bigger problem by far. As I have been calling for since the last Assembly, we still need a new costed plan that deals with all these issues of space, staffing, and coordination, not some vague priority such as "advanced universal childcare by increasing availability and affordability." We need a costed plan for universal childcare and an agreement with the federal government to implement it now.
I will have questions for the Minister of childcare about when universal affordable child care is coming to the Northwest Territories and how an agreement with the federal government will make that happen. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Thebacha..
