Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday I met with the NWT Literacy Council, and I'll certainly be happy to go back to them and discuss how we're spending our funding in literacy. If they feel that there are areas that we can redirect funding that is now being spent on literacy into childcare, I'd be the first one prepared to do that. Mr. Speaker, I agree that we should get more money into childcare, and I think that what we need to do is make sure that we, in the North, have the same opportunities that they have in other jurisdictions in Canada right now, where they've already got that money from Minister Dryden and they're already spending it. It should be coming to us so that we can give it to people in the North, as well.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister is demonstrating the extent of his incompetence on his portfolio by not addressing any of the issues that I'm dealing with, and putting an excuse to the federal Minister, Mr. Speaker. I don't think children in our communities care that he didn't win his fight with Minister Dryden. In the meantime, what are the children supposed to do when they have no home to go to?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Thank you for your question. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we have a business planning process. We have a budgeting process. I would be happy to move forward with a proposal that we add our own money into this program. But I can't do it right now. I don't have a pot of money to stick my hand into and bring it out. All the money we spend has to go through our budget process. I'd be quite happy to look at moving some of money that we proposed new initiatives for this next year into day care funding. But, Mr. Speaker, I can't do that in advance of the budget session.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, I don't believe the Minister ever came to the Social Programs committee asking for more money for day care. The committee fought to keep that money in early childhood programs. The Minister is well aware that he gets $260 million plus, or $250 million plus. The department seems to have a lot of money to do a lot of things, and I don't see how he can say that he cannot find $20,000 until Christmas, so that this centre can keep their doors open until they figure out where the parents are going to send their kids. Have some sympathy, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we're going to find money for the program, then I want to make sure that it's available equitably across the Northwest Territories. We can't pick and choose which program is better than another. What we have to do is find

ways to support all of our centres through the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement today on the day care crisis in the small communities of the Northwest Territories, it seems that some of the programs are not working in the region that I represent. My question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is whether his department is currently or has any plans to examine the merits of the licensed day care programs and the appropriate level of funding to these community-licensed day care programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, we had planned on taking a look at that. Last year, when the federal government announced that they were going to contribute $5 million to early learning and childcare across Canada, we had thought that we would see that money being spent in the Northwest Territories by now. So we had thought that we were going to have that money in hand and be spending it already. That's what we had counted on.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in our pre-budget consultations, we heard a lot from our people in the small communities, and we, too, were hoping that the Minister would bring good news back from Ottawa, and hoping that we would be spending this money in our communities. I think the Minister needs to really talk to Mr. Dryden, along with the Premier, in terms of the principles that were set down by the federal Minister in terms of the Caucus agreeing to it. My question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is, does the Minister agree that we should look at a two-tier system for the communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of contributions, we actually have 10 tiers already, so that the communities where there are higher costs, their operating contributions are higher than in the regions where costs are not so high. For instance, Paulatuk and Colville Lake receive the largest per child contribution, whereas places like Hay River and Yellowknife get the lowest level of contribution to centres. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's the first time I hear that Colville Lake is number one.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister in terms of his approaches to meeting with the Honourable Ken Dryden regarding the funding for the day care centres, the Minister has talked about his approach not being successful. Has the Minister looked at taking his approach to a different level, in terms of asking the federal government to fund facilities in the Northwest Territories? My understanding is he's asking for increased training and eligibility for parents to put their children, or having access to subsidies for these programs. My question to the Minister is in terms of funding the facilities in the North. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we're talking with the federal government about, in other jurisdictions it hasn't been totally specified how the money will be spent. It's been left up to the jurisdiction, as long as it's meeting certain principles. That's the same sort of deal that we're looking for here, too, one which would allow us to spend the money that we get from the federal government, according to the principles that are set in the program, but as they are needed in the Northwest Territories. At this point, we haven't looked at providing facilities, but it would be something that we could take a look at. However, the amount of money we're talking about, even if we get the base funding that we're hoping to see, would mean that it would be very limited in terms of what we could do for facility contributions.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.