Mr. Speaker, to anyone helping to raise a child in this today's society, let's collectively take a deep breath. It's hard. From SnapChat to substance use, learning boundaries to learning algebra, and navigating the costs today while preparing them for tomorrow, and somehow in the middle of all that, trying to take moments of magic in their every day. It is hard.
My heart goes out to today's parents who have the added challenge of finding childcare and, in some cases, choosing between their career goals and their family goals. Accessible and affordable childcare is paying an oversized role in determining whether parents can return to their preCOVID employment and wage paths.
Under the guise of universal childcare, Canada is evolving the childcare industry into a sector similar to our education system, and there is much to be gained from that. But this transition is reliant on the buy in and support of the people who have built and sustained our existing childcare sector. For NWT day cares, the sustainability concerns center on covering unexpected operating costs while working with a capped revenue increase. You cannot have sustainability without certainty, Mr. Speaker.
In addition, low wages is one of the biggest barriers to recruiting and retaining workers, and the GNWT is working to establish a wage grid but advocates say childcare wages have to hit $30 an hour, average, across Canada to meet demand for the service. For the day homes, independent business owners are slowly losing their business autonomy without gaining the working conditions and benefits like pensions, paid time off, and a living wage afforded to their counterparts in education. This is driving qualified childcare workers out of day cares and day homes and into the classrooms as teaching assistants. But sustainability is one side of this council. Accessibility is the other.
Mr. Speaker, we need infrastructure and the land to put it on. We have seen other industries use innovative shared equity mortgage programs with success. This is a potential option to provide a much-needed boost to the childcare sector that stands to reduce the cost or barriers of providers looking to rent or purchase the physical space required to provide early learning and childcare. Mr. Speaker, advocates say the shortage of both childcare spaces and workers is creating a bottleneck that will take time to unclog, but parents can't afford that time. We need active solutions to tackle this challenge that prioritizes both the sustainability and accessibility of the NWT childcare sector. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.
