Mr. Chairman, I am glad to see that we agree that Fort Simpson doesn’t have a library, so they should be able to access these funds. However, I will just leave that alone. Still, like I said, it is still high on my agenda and the agenda of the community of Fort Simpson to find a resolution around this and how to best fill our public library. I have always thought that establishing Fort Simpson as a regional library service makes it and that becomes a legislative library. It has to be funded is the way to go, if there is any way this line item can help and we will see the next movement from the district education authority in the community of Fort Simpson on that.

Having been shared with Government Operations committee and we have done all that work on the languages and the Minister’s office also did quite a bit. I see that under our official languages line item, there is an increase of about $1 million over last year. Maybe the Minister can advise where these expenditures will take place.

Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chairman, that official languages area, as the Member indicated, there are a few line items that have been discussed. Some of the areas, of course, we have to deal with the French implementation, improve government communication and also service delivery in French by implementing the GNWT Strategic Plan on French Language Communications and Services. We had to follow through with that in response to an order by Justice Moreau. Another area, of course, is the Aboriginal Languages Summer Institute expansion of $300,000. Those are just some of the key highlights that I just want to address with the Member. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, I also see that under the line item Aboriginal language and culture-based education there is an increase of about $300,000 over last year. Can the Minister explain how that will enhance and encourage Aboriginal language in the communities, if that is one of the activity areas in the department that will assist in developing our Aboriginal languages, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. Chairman, that funding is based on enrolment, the funding that we provide to the schools. That is the increase. Mahsi.

We are on page 10-17. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the Aboriginal language and culture-based education, the Minister says it is part of the contribution that goes to the schools and that is how I imagine the regional educational council is the one that decides which schools get how much and the guidelines and parameters about what kind of program to use maybe. Maybe the Minister can just give me a typical program area on how this is expended.

Mr. Chairman, that is correct; we provide funding that flows through to district education council and then it flows down to the schools or DEA and then they decide where their priorities lie. They do share those priorities with us as well. We work hand in hand with the district education council. We are fully aware of that information that has been shared with us. I can give you an example where Fort Providence has a language immersion program K to 3. That is just an example. It is up to the school board to decide where they will spend their money. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, I just have one more line item that had a little bit of an increase of about $300,000, which is culture and heritage. I am just interested, once again, if some of that expenditure is for Aboriginal languages, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the culture and heritage, there has been some increase, just over $300,000. First is forced growth. It is an information request, residential school claims and litigation. There is an incremental cost. There is also renewal of museum exhibits and collections and just to renew plans and collection renewal strategy to reshape the existing museum. There are some displays and exhibits that have been produced. The plan is to deliver those into the Northwest Territories and also on-line exhibits. Those are just some of the highlights of the expenditures. Mahsi.

Next I have Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Hawkins and Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am interested in asking a question to the Minister on the Early Childhood Development Program. Mr. Chairman, I am wondering if the department has a criteria of allocating dollars in early childhood development dollars that are there to support daycare, child care and any sort of preschool, kindergarten, anything that is covered under the early childhood development, if the department has

any criteria on which communities get it and if such a criteria exists, how it is applied when they determine where the money goes. I would like to start with that, Mr. Chairman.

Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chairman, we do have a program in place. The funding is available to those individual organizations that want to either have an establishment, but it is based on an application basis. Those individuals wishing to set up or already operating, seek funds, then we do have funding available for that. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, in the smaller Aboriginal communities, I see that everything is tied together and the first problem exists with the lack of employment in small communities. With the lack of employment in small communities, then people are home taking care of their own children, so they don’t necessarily need daycare. However, if we continue, then it will always exist. We will always have low employment numbers in the small communities and people will always be home taking care of their children and not making any other productive choices to change that from being employed so that the employment exists in the small communities as well to get some sort of balance here.

As many of the programs exist, I know that not only this department but every department I don’t believe uses any form of community criteria to determine where dollars should go. I am saying that it is essential that early childhood development dollars that are supportive in nature go into the small communities where they can’t afford anything else, that they can’t afford to pay for their own daycare in communities. Where you have two full-time employed people, they can afford daycare, they can afford to pay private daycare to support themselves and put their kids in a private daycare. In small communities that option is not there. If the people want to educate themselves to make themselves more employable, they can’t afford daycare. So again, I want to know if this government specifically looks at those types of things when allocating, let’s just use daycare dollars for now, in allocating daycare dollars? But I’m talking about everything -- kindergarten, support for preschool and so on -- but for now we’ll talk about daycare. Does the government have some sort of system in place that determines where that money goes?

Within our depatment with the funding allocation, it is based on the application. We don’t have a specific criteria to say there’s a small community that’s in high need, because we have to deal with all the communities of the Northwest Territories, but this is an area that we can discuss further in the Early Childhood Development Framework that’s currently under

review. We’re at the first phase and in the second phase what changes need to be made. So I will be addressing this with my department as to where it can fit in. So we can discuss it further. Mahsi.

I thank the Minister for that response. I think it’s essential. These dollars become essential to small communities and may not be essential. They are dollars that are nice to have. In small communities it’s nice to be able to have daycares and city of Yellowknife daycares in the regional centres for kids to go to. I just wonder if any of that support is given to those daycares, because it appears as though the money is not avaialble to small communities in a large way.

For two days I asked the Minister questions on daycare, preschool, and I kind of came away with the feeling that the department doesn’t do infrastructure, for example, for daycares, which is understandable and it’s pretty simple, they go out and get the mortgage, but can the department provide subsidies for the daycares in small communities so that they can afford to go out and get a mortgage, build a unit to house a preschool, a daycare and so on? A proper unit, not just an old trailer that belongs to the band or one corner of the community hall, but a proper buildling. So I’m going to ask the Minister if there could be some sort of a strategy in place, some sort of criteria in place, some sort of point system, if that’s what it comes down to in order to determine where dollars in this area, or dollars in daycare and preschool and so on, using community standards like the level of employment, the level of income into the communities to determine if this is used to support and get evreybody up to a certain level if we just keep everything the same based on application.

The application I’m assuming would be based on the fact that there’s people that are employed, there’s a need for child care. But my concern is more in subsidizing that. If this govenrment is spending $4 million in early childhood development, $7 million in early childhood development, whatever it is that’s targeted specifically for this, is it going to the larger communities or the smaller communities? Thank you.

That funding that we have, again, is available to all communities in the Northwest Territories. What the Member is referring to is the program, the subsidy program. We do provide funding already. Maybe we can share that detailed information with the Members.

The information that we have, or the program that we have is to subsidize part of a mortgage and also the rental of the premises. Not only that, but the oprational maintenance of the facility itself. So out of that they hire people in the communities. So, Mr. Chair, again, this could be part of the Early Childhood Development Framework review, because what we’re talking about now is possibly

making some changes that reflect on the small communities.

What we have today, the budget before us, is the current status that we have with the programming. But I do take the Member’s note and we’ll have to take those into consideration during our second phase of the review. Mahsi.

Just to finish off on the same topic, I think that the department should consider making a shift to our small communities, to start supporting small communities. Make it possible for people in small communities to make the productive choice to ultimately be able to support themselves. The benefits of people working are many in the Northwest Territories. There would be a savings in education, health, housing, income support, all of those areas. If we could support the people to help them with things like taking care of their children when they’re trying to make productive choices, go back to school, have jobs and so on, I think it will go a long way to benefiting all communities, including the larger communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

This is an area that we need to explore with the committee and the small and remote committee, a community committee. With the current funding that we have and also the review that’s being undertaken, phase I, phase II, that’s an opportunity for us to make some changes.

We clearly hear from Member Beaulieu that this is a concern for his constituents and others in the small communities. So, Mr. Chair, I’ll commit to looking at this with my department during the review process. Mahsi.

Thank you. Next I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The area I’d like to seek some further information on early childhood development in a different vein as raised by a previous colleague. Mr. Chairman, I’d like to find out how many institutions are funded under this year’s program of $7.3 million and does the Minister have a list that he could provide me with a breakout of that funding formula. As well, on a last note, by community and by how many students that attend those particular facilites or, I should put in brackets, we anticipate to attend. Thank you.

Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We can definitely provide that information. I do have it here. There is a number of licensed early childhood programming. Overall, in total there’s 124 and I don’t have a breakdown of the communities at this point, but we can provide that as well. The number of licensed early childhood spaces in the region overall is 1,855. So this information we can

share. I don’t have the specific communities, but I do have the regions. So I can share this with the Members. Mahsi.