Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, day cares in the North are closing. They have been closing in Yellowknife, and many other places, because of the inadequacy in funding. There is not enough money to find and pay for suitable locations to run them, and when a group of dedicated volunteers get together and get a centre going, they quickly learn that the subsidy they receive from the government is not enough to keep the facility going.

Day care funding is inequitable in so many ways. Some kids need more attention than others, and when kids don't show up, for some reason, the day cares are not paid. Goodness knows, these day cares are not operating on a podgy core funding budget. Day care workers are notoriously underpaid. When all these centres fail, the government puts up their hands and say, "Oh, golly gee, I wonder what happened."

Instead of picking an action to find the solution, they look around to see who they can blame, Mr. Speaker. First, it's the federal government: "Well Mr. Speaker, the federal government announced their $5 billion program months ago and everyone here knows that is always an uphill battle to get ourselves outside of the per capita financing formula box."

It would have taken a well organized, concerted effort on the part of the entire Cabinet to fight this battle and win it. So where has this Cabinet been all this time, Mr. Speaker, why such a surprise?

Last week, when answering questions, Premier Handley kept saying that he needed financial records from the centre, as though there is some kind of financial wrongdoing. When asked, Minister Dent tells me that there is no such suggestion, it's just that there is not enough money. So then what was up with all those questions from the Premier, and why does the department keep sending letters to the day care, asking for things that they don't understand? Why don't they try to spend the time finding solutions and assistance?

The lack of ability to move on this file on the part of the Minister is very disturbing, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, when answering questions to Mrs. Groenewegen about a possibility of giving the day care contributions directly to the day care itself, the Minister says he will consider it, but he has to get the request from the centre.

His wait-and-react attitude is really getting on my nerves, Mr. Speaker. What is up with all the things that we are saying -- the Status of Women Council, Members Lafferty and Groenewegen -- is he not listening? He even suggested that he didn't get any direction from the Social Programs committee. Well, if he thinks that he can get more action out of this side of the floor, Mr. Speaker, I will happily give up my seat and take over his seat...

---Laughter

...and show him how I can do things without waiting for the world to fall apart. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to complete my statement.