Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd just like to continue on the line of questioning and dig a little deeper with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, I had asked about the possibility of daycares charging fees in order to make up the gap. Is there perhaps a loophole that could be found in that daycares would not be charging fees for providing daycare but simply for charging -- for extras, things like providing meals, things like extracurricular activities that I know parents love having for their children. So is there some way that we can find a way around the rules that are being put on us by the feds? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from the agreement that we as provinces and territories have with the federal government for childcare, we aren't allowed to charge additional fees. The piece that keeps coming back out is places can do fundraising. I do understand, though, Mr. Speaker, as a working parent myself who uses different entities to care for my children, that this is very difficult to do. We also know that many sporting institutions do charge fundraising fees if parents aren't able to do fundraising. And so in answer to the Member's question, I am currently looking into what loopholes might exist. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that answer. That does, I think, provide somewhat of a path. I mean, fundraising is something that they could be doing in order to do these extra programs, so that's something I can bring back to them as an option and I hope the Minister -- but to get to the next question, Mr. Speaker, if charging fees isn't allowed, I'm looking at what can we do to change this gap -- to close this gap as MLAs. I know that my colleagues probably join me in wanting to do what we can for the daycares, do what we can to help them expand, help them operate to the best of their extent, so what -- does the Minister have any ideas for what we can do on the territorial side to help these operators? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I'm hearing from operators, and from Members on the floor of this House, is that they're looking to pay their staff more, and they're in a situation where they are provided a certain amount from Education, Culture and Employment in order to do that, and Education, Culture and Employment can only cover a certain amount of that based on our budgets. What I can say is the bulk of increases to the early learning and childcare budgets for the Department of education have been from this program and even right across the department, Mr. Speaker. And so we, for our current funding, are certainly tapped out. The Members did negotiate an additional $3.5 million in our previous budget negotiations, which was a huge help. But what we are continuing to hear is that that is not enough. We know that across the country that jurisdictions are having to put more and more money into this program. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly I'm interested in hearing back from the Minister what they need to help make a difference, and I can advocate on this side with my colleagues to see if we can get that done.
Mr. Speaker, considering the problems that this new program is causing, and I'm hearing it from many of my constituents, and I'm sure it's happening across the country, can the Minister work with her colleagues in the provinces to advocate to the federal government for better flexibility for implementation of this program seeing the issues that we've been seeing, knowing that it's not really working as well as it was intended, can the Minister advocate for changes at the federal level so that we don't have as many roadblocks in front of our operators? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can share with the Member that since I started in this role, one of the common things heard at our FTP table is that this agreement -- or these agreements were signed before record inflation occurred and that, as I had previously said, jurisdictions are putting more and more money into this program in order to make it work. So that is something that I will certainly continue to share with the federal government at every opportunity that I do get at these tables what the reality is that we are hearing from our childcare providers. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
