Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of years ago, the government undertook a plan for what should take place in early childhood education, and set that plan or made that plan public. That is the guideline document that we would use when improving the services. The Member is right; there is no plan for us to get into providing space for early childhood education. We have, at this point, talked, in the amendment to the

Education Act, about allowing schools to get into full-day kindergarten, but, at this point, the government has not looked at providing space for day cares for children who are four and younger.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that the Minister is saying that we're not doing anything about that, and I'm here to tell him that it's about time we did something about that because, Mr. Speaker, there are lots of things we can do. For example, in Lutselk'e I felt so sorry for that day care manager. He was at wits end, and the guy is not going to last there very long if somebody does not help him to find a place. We need a champion for children. Will the Minister at least look at Lutselk'e and see if you can find a space for these little ones right now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Education, Culture and Employment would be happy to work with anybody in any community in terms of trying to find a way to help operations get started. But care for children under the age of four is the primary responsibility of the parents. Our government provides assistance to day cares to get started in terms of capital. We have start-up grants. In terms of operations, we have grants to both day care providers and to parents. But it has been our policy that this government is providing assistance to parents, we're not the primary caregivers.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Your final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to say that whatever policies he's outlining are not working. It is time for us to look at how to do this differently. We have a champion for the pipeline; we have a champion for devolution; we have a champion for highways; we have Ministers doing all sorts of trilateral government negotiations; there are meetings; they are burning the airplane routes talking about all these big issues, and there is not one child advocate or champion for children at that table and it's about time that somebody does that job. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I didn't hear a question there. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, it is possible to build in multi-year funding agreements. The issue of escalators to non-government organizations is one that as a government we're currently struggling with, recognizing the fact that there are costs, as the Member has articulately outlined. They have to bear the same as government, yet we don't have the capacity to build into our budgets those kinds of increases. We're looking at a third-party accountability that will hopefully allow us to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I'm hearing then is yes to multi-year funding. So what I want to know now is what kinds of criteria would an NGO have to meet to qualify for that? Would there be some importance placed on the fact that many of these NGOs have been around for 20 years or more? We know they're there. They are there to stay. They're doing incredible work for this government and for our communities. What kinds of criteria would we put on for multi-year funding, and are there any administrative obstacles in terms of our government in extending that and getting it rolling? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are no obstacles preventing us as a government from entering into multi-year contracts, as far as I'm aware. The only caveat being, as with every contract we enter into, it's always contingent upon the Legislative Assembly having the final approval of the budget that were putting forward for that year. So, Mr. Speaker, in terms of who is Health and Social Services prepared to enter into multi-year contracts with, clearly we have a long-term relationship with many, many NGOs and

all those NGOs, as I've indicated in my travels as well, we're prepared to enter into long-term multi-year contracts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is just too much good news.

---Laughter

I don't know what to ask now. No, seriously, are the NGOs that have contribution agreements with the Department of Health and Social Services, have they been formally notified of these prospects for multi-year funding? If they haven't been, how will they be notified? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've been making that commitment to NGOs, and it is a position that it's clear that we have that capacity as a government. The condition always is, it's going to be dependent on the funds being voted, and it's going to be based on, at this point, the existing dollars that are in the contracts until we can work out the issue of the third-party accountabilities and what we're going to do or how we're going to address the forced-growth issues that affect NGOs the same as government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. So for the fiscal year, funding year, of April 1, 2006, then NGOs can propose their contributions, propose their budgets on a multi-year basis. Is that correct? Thank you.