Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m also in favour of the motion, and I don’t want to repeat everything my colleagues Mr.
Bromley and
Mr. Hawkins have said.
Suffice it to say the key word, too, is “stabilize.” If you look at a couple of areas that the department has targeted for reductions, the $1.242 million for student child subsidy, also the $1.3 million I spoke of earlier for wage subsidies…. I think if we got creative a little bit, we could shore up child care services in the Northwest Territories. If you take that $1.242 million that you’re reducing and earmark it for stabilizing the funding for child care, that, to me, makes a lot of sense. Also the wage subsidy money that was cut, you could take a portion of that and earmark it for child care workers.
Those are the two things that are resulting in daycares and spaces shutting down across the territory: the lack of workers and also the fluctuations in funding. I think if we can fix those two things, operators out there would stand a chance of staying around for a while. So I’m in agreement with the motion, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.