Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, in 1997 the governments of Canada, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan signed the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement. When we signed, our governments agreed on the principles for co-managing the Mackenzie River Basin’s water ecosystems. We also made plans for signing bilateral agreements between each of our provinces and territories.

It took us longer than we’d planned, but we are making progress on the bilateral agreements. This follows the work that happened in the 16th Assembly to develop a Water Stewardship Strategy with Aboriginal governments, communities and the federal government. Following the direction of this Assembly, we are working with our partners to ensure responsible stewardship of our territorial waters. This agreement will help us to manage an environment that will sustain present and future generations.

In 2007 the NWT and Alberta signed the Bilateral Water Management Agreement Negotiations Memorandum of Understanding that outlines the process, schedule, principles and information required to negotiate the bilateral agreement. Negotiations are following a three-phased process: information gathering and sharing, negotiating and writing, and agreement finalization.

Our territory is represented by the GNWT, Aboriginal governments and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. To date, three meetings have been held with the Government of

Alberta. At the most recent meeting with Alberta in April, we brought together information to share as a basis for negotiations, and talked about our interests and how to achieve them in the new agreement. As with all negotiations, we started with our shared interests.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada are working together to implement an Aboriginal and public engagement process for the negotiations with Alberta. We are engaging with Aboriginal leadership to seek input on negotiation principles and interests. We’ll also gather public input and we’ll meet to talk about how to achieve our shared interests before we finalize the agreement.

Though the GNWT is not a primary regulator of water use in the NWT, we do take on lead roles and partnerships to protect our water resources. The NWT Water Stewardship Strategy Action Plan will serve as a foundation as we continue negotiations on a bilateral transboundary water agreement with Alberta. The action plan identifies a number of key components, including transboundary water agreement negotiations, community-based water monitoring and a collaborative partnership approach.

Our department continues to work collectively with our partners to gather and compile information needed for negotiations with Alberta.

Mr. Speaker, the next bilateral meeting with Alberta is planned for late June. This meeting will allow each jurisdiction to explore options to achieve their respective interests in the bilateral agreement. We are hopeful that we can conclude this bilateral agreement in early 2013. After that, we will begin discussions with British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Yukon. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

The strategic framework Building for the Future: Northern Solutions for Northern Housing, released on April 16, 2012, outlines the direction that the Housing Corporation will be taking in delivering housing programs and services to NWT residents.

Our new strategic framework has refocused the GNWT’s approach to housing delivery based on what we learned from the shelter policy review. Building for the Future capitalizes on the successes of existing housing programs and services, provides improvements where there are gaps in support, and makes changes to programs to better suit the needs of territorial residents.

Building for the Future identifies eight strategic priorities and related actions that will, over the long term, address the spectrum of need from homelessness to home ownership. These eight strategic priorities are:

• strengthening public housing;

• improving home ownership supports;

• increasing housing options in non-market

communities;

• improving housing services;

• strengthening the approach to homelessness

and transitional housing;

• addressing housing challenges for the working

poor;

• developing infrastructure solutions based on

individual and community needs; and

• addressing the declining federal funding.

Mr. Speaker, I spoke last week of the changes in the public housing rent scale, but today I want to highlight other actions contained in Building for the Future.

As part of our priority to improve home ownership supports, the Housing Corporation will be expanding the availability and targeting of repair programs. We’re introducing a new emergency repair program called SAFE for situations like freeze-ups and furnace failures. The program will target low- and modest-income homeowners, including seniors on fixed incomes, and will be available any time during the year. There will be a streamlined application and approval process, and arrears and land tenure will not be considered as part of eligibility. This program will be of significant benefit to low- and modest-income households to address emergency problems before they cause even greater issues in their home.

The working poor face unique housing challenges. The challenges are partly addressed through the changes in the public housing rent scales but also by the new Transitional Rent Supplement Program announced as part of the budget. This new program will support low- and modest-income residents that are unable to get into public housing but are in core need because of high market rents. This program will help students, lone-parent families and those ready to move from transition housing to market rentals.

Mr. Speaker, each year the federal funding for operating social housing is declining. This is a major challenge facing our government and by 2037-38 the remaining $17 million in annual federal funding will be eliminated. We continue to work on this priority with the federal government, but we can’t wait for Canada to change its approach. We have made investments to address the declines so far but we have to do more. Our costs to operate public housing keep going up while federal funding declines. We need a sustainable rent scale and a public housing program that operates as efficiently as possible. We have to consider reducing our public housing stock and continue to concentrate on arrears and rent collection.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation is implementing many of the strategic priorities and actions set out in Building for the Future during 2012-13 but are also working on the additional actions. I will continue to keep the Assembly and the committee updated on the implementation of our strategic framework. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, we want a territory where a strong, diversified economy provides opportunities and choices to all our residents. Socially responsible and environmentally sustainable development of our resources will be one of the keys to achieving that goal. The Northwest Territories is resource-rich and brimming with potential. Today I would like to speak about some exciting developments in the oil and gas sector and of the significant opportunities the development of resources can bring to our residents.

The Sahtu region is a prime example of potential in the petroleum industry. A 2011 call for bids resulted in the commitment by industry to invest $534 million to test 11 parcels of land in the Canol shale formation for their petroleum potential. Industry experts believe that there is potentially one to two

billion barrels in this area just sitting there waiting to be tapped.

Work on these parcels began this past winter and we saw unprecedented levels of activity in the Sahtu. Major players in the international oil industry, including ConocoPhillips, Husky Oil Operations Limited, and Explor Geophysical, have signed access and benefit agreements with various local land corporations. These agreements result in jobs for residents as well as direct and indirect investment in the local community.

For example, in Norman Wells the increased petroleum activity translated to full occupancy of four hotels in the community for six months, a 100 percent increase in sales at grocery stores and vehicle rentals, and a tripling of aircraft takeoffs and landings. This is real on-the-ground-activity, and it is exciting.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is taking action to ensure that residents of the Sahtu make the most of the economic opportunities that this activity represents. The department has been working with the National Energy Board, the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada – and supporting local initiatives such as assisting land corporations understand hydraulic fracturing – to ensure that communities have good information for making decisions about development.

Through our regional office, we are also supporting the Tulita and K’asho Go’tine districts in their efforts to obtain a rights issuance on their own settlement lands. Production of oil on settlement lands would result in employment and business opportunities, and royalties from production on their private lands would go directly to these beneficiary organizations.

The renewed interest in oil and gas exploration and development only strengthens the need to develop our transportation infrastructure. Permanent highways could bring down the cost of living in some NWT communities and help develop the region’s oil and gas industry, not to mention the long-term jobs it will bring in road construction and maintenance.

Mr. Speaker, these are only examples of what is happening today. This activity will continue for the next few years and potentially for decades to come. Beyond that, the next frontier is offshore, beneath the waters of the Beaufort Sea. Within our territorial waters, the Northwest Territories has resources in the Beaufort Sea that extend to the North Pole and, according to the United States Geological Survey and our own advisors, oil potential to rival the Gulf of Mexico.

We are now seeing new activity in this area with Chevron gathering seismic data this summer and

Exxon making plans for exploration drilling in the next few years.

Also, the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada issued two calls for bids this year. The first call for bids is for the two parcels in the central Mackenzie Valley, and the second call for bids consists of six parcels in the Beaufort Sea Mackenzie Delta.

Our challenge as a government is to ensure these resources are developed in a manner that brings economic benefits to our residents while ensuring the protection of our environment. We continue to pursue the authority to regulate development in the Northwest Territories through devolution. Once in place, Northerners will finally be able to make the decisions about how we develop our resources and protect our environment. Acquiring this authority, and the resource royalties that we would start collecting, will be our best opportunity for ensuring our residents benefit from development in the Northwest Territories.

In the meantime, the Government of the Northwest Territories continues to work with existing regulators to ensure northern interests are understood and respected. The National Energy Board recently completed an Arctic review to help us learn how best to regulate our offshore activity.

The GNWT participated fully in this review and we are pleased with the extensive engagement with Northerners that took place during this process. The Arctic offshore drilling review gave us insight about the challenges of Arctic exploration and development. It will help the National Energy Board ensure the correct safety and environment protection requirements are in place when considering future applications by companies who want to drill in the Arctic offshore.

Mr. Speaker, we are confident that with our continued efforts, as well as those of our industry partners, we will be able to ensure safe, sustainable development of this territory’s resources and maximum benefits for our residents for years to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Tom Beaulieu will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Council of the Federation Health Care Innovation Work Group in Victoria, British Columbia. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes we do interviews with the media and then we turn on the radio or open the newspapers and we are completely shocked to see what it was they decided to highlight from the conversation.

Mr. Speaker, I was sent a series of questions by the local Hub reporter about the new health centre. I said, well, send them in writing and I’ll answer them all in writing. It was a whole gamut of questions, everything about will this attract new doctors to what services will be there. It was a very good list of questions, but she asked me what did I think of the new hospital location, to which I said I’ve never supported the current location of the new facility. I’ve had doubts about the readiness from a drainage perspective, I have concerns about the traintracks if the use of the train surface increases from economic activity, but the Town of Hay River really wanted the hospital development to be there as the anchor development that would bring services to that area, to which they are hoping to attract more development.

The Department of Health and Social Services was respectful of the Town of Hay River’s desire to locate it at the plan site, and with the competition for so many capital infrastructure needs to drag out the location question any longer would have risked the commitment of the funding for the new facility, for a key piece of infrastructure such as this that would be around and serve us for so many years to come. I would have preferred the ENR forestry site on the east side of the highway, but that’s not relevant now. But the headline still said that’s all the article was about, was how I didn’t like the location.

So what I wanted to do today to set the record straight is later I will table the questions and answers. I will table the article. What I want to say is we had due process on location. We had meetings with Public Works and Services. We did geotechnical on a number of sites. As a result, from the town’s input, the MLAs’ input, the current location where the new health centre is going to be built was decided up and agreed to, and my little, minority concerns were not going to be a deciding factor. Certainly, from my opinion, I didn’t want them to delay the start of the project, and the funding has been committed.

Mr. Speaker, for the record today, I wanted to clarify that and I guess I’ll have to figure out how to be more clear with the media in the future.

I thank the department, I thank the government on proceeding on this very important project to the people of Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Early childhood development is an important aspect for Regular Members and if you don’t think so, stay tuned for later today.

We are hoping that this sends a very strong and meaningful signal to the department that proper funding and planning and full collaboration with all northern stakeholders needs to be more than just the flavour of the month.

Recently, I had the honour of co-chairing with my colleagues Minister Lafferty and Minister Beaulieu with many participants from around the NWT as an advisor leading on the child and family resource centre issues.

This was fundamentally the first step towards improving early childhood development programming in the Northwest Territories. Together, it was very clear that we could not put too much emphasis on ensuring that our children are properly nurtured, encouraged and protected, especially during those early years, zero to three years of age, which serves as a critical foundation for lifelong development and success.

It was very evident that the stakeholder meeting did set the stage for asking the fundamental question are we, the government, doing this right. Before I answer such a question, it is imperative that the primary responsibility for raising children is with the family and that the government should only need to play a supportive role. However, the answer to my earlier question is no, we’re not doing it right.

The current Early Childhood Development Framework is over 10 years old and we require the modernization of its content to reflect what Northerners need to succeed. We need new money for this to occur, but unfortunately we’re seeing a current budget and a government that’s not walking the talk. It’s not, as the government has pointed out, as easy as delivering it differently, it’s not only about collaboration or coordination or communication, it’s about infrastructure. A better one, at that, for one-stop facilities. It’s about having better tools. It’s about engagement of our communities. More importantly, it’s about best modern-day practices.

The Regular Members here are not experts but it’s clear from Regular Members that northern society will continue to suffer from health problems, social issues such as homelessness, addictions, violence and especially lower levels of education. Knowing this, unless we provide all our children with the

support they need to develop potential and early childhood, we will lose this battle.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment in its 2012-2013 budget has a number of new initiatives, two of which are a new kindergarten curriculum and measuring children’s development in kindergarten. Those are good, but it’s not all of what is needed. If we wait to start early intervention until preschool or kindergarten, we’ve missed a huge opportunity to address any health or learning issues at an age when intervention can really make a difference.

As my colleague Mr. Bromley has often told us, brain development begins in the womb and continues at a rapid rate for the first three years of life. Research proves that early intervention from birth to three years can have huge, positive impacts on an individual’s success in life. The evidence is compelling and overwhelming.

Well-funded, integrated child development and parenting programs improve the cognitive and social functioning of all children, especially when started early: at birth. The research also indicates that children attending high-quality early childhood programs have greater success in school. That’s what we want for NWT students: success in school and in life. Isn’t that the goal of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative?

Quality early learning programs are not only good for children and families, they’re good for the bottom line. The report for an Ontario study done in 2010 states that focused public spending on young children provides returns that outstrip any other type of human capital investment. Pay a little early, gain a lot later.

The NWT Early Childhood Development Framework needs to reflect this research. It needs to include programs which begin at birth and before birth at the prenatal level. One of the identified goals in the 17th Assembly is to ensure a fair and

sustainable health care system by investing in prevention, education and awareness, and early childhood development. We should listen to ourselves.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be speaking on the good merits and reasons why we should be doing more in early childhood education. Early childhood education is a term which refers to the education programs and strategies geared towards children from birth to the age of eight. This time period is widely considered the most vulnerable and certainly the most crucial stages of a young person’s life.

A child’s readiness to begin formal schooling is much more than just academic readiness. It’s a matter of targeting the whole needs of the child. Quite typically you’ll see that a lot of programs target children between the ages of three, four and five to help them get a good footing, a good start on their future. I can’t imagine building a house without a solid foundation, so why would we treat our children any less without giving them a good foundation to their future.

A variety of childhood education programs exist. We have often heard them referred to as nursery schools, daycare centres, preschools, Head Start programs, pre-kindergarten, junior kindergarten and even kindergarten. I am telling you that there are many forms that early childhood education comes in.

There are five dimensions often referred to as early childhood learning and what they do is they target certain areas. You have physical well-being and motor skill development, social and emotional development, approaches towards learning, language development and cognition, and general learning. Each of these dimensions play such a critical role to a young person’s beginnings as they prepare for school, they prepare for the future. This is the foundation of our commitment. Why aren’t we throwing all resources to it?

Often these dimensions are also referred to as pillars of developmental learning. These five pillars are referred to quickly as social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional. Equally important on every stage. The fact is we shouldn’t be missing out on every opportunity to make sure our young people are ready for the future.

Now, school readiness is important, but it doesn’t just apply there. It also applies to the communities, families and our environment that we surround. This message is more for the McLeod government, that they need to act. Not just because MLAs say it’s important, not just because our early educators who are the experts in this field say it’s so important, because our constituents out there demand that we give our young people the rightful head start that they deserve. Mr. Speaker, it’s time we invest in this initiative with full force and readiness. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We know how important the first three years are in a child’s life. That is when they build the foundation for their future learning and growth. Responsibility for early childhood development is shared between two GNWT departments and Health Canada. In fact, Health Canada is the main funder of one of the best early childhood programs in this territory. I refer to the Open Door Society in my home community. It was founded 17 years ago and is supported by a very dedicated volunteer board. The Open Door has five staff who run programs for children up to age 12, from nine in the morning until eight o’clock at night, all at no cost to the parents.

The Busy Bee program is for three year olds, focusing on social skills and large motor activity. There is a preschool program for four year olds and a playgroup. There is a toy lending library. The society runs the annual Easter egg hunt and many other activities for the children of the community.

The bad news, Mr. Speaker, is that Open Door runs on a shoestring budget. It is amazing what they do with so little. They can’t afford employee benefits. Money for training is also hard to come by, but it’s even harder to find well-trained staff. These are areas where our government could do better.

In addition, Open Door has to apply for money pretty well every year. The society does get supportive funding from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and a room at the Bompas School at a low cost. I should mention that in our government, ECE shares responsibility for early childhood development with Health and Social Services. That department is finally expanding the Healthy Family Program into Nahendeh this year and I am pleased that it is happening.

But support for early childhood programs is insufficient and too fragmented, especially for small communities that may want to start something like the Open Door Society. I would like to see that problem addressed. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a lot of my colleagues have mentioned, the importance of early childhood in the ages zero to three. If we don’t

put our services and our investments into this initiative, we’re going to be failing our students as they progress in life, as they get into middle school, elementary school and as seniors. We don’t have to look too far to see our graduation rates of the NWT as well as the money that we’re going to be putting into inclusive schooling here.

I want to speak to a specific issue. We know that programs are needed just as much as space facilities for our children and our youth and our children. To have access to these programs, space is needed. In Inuvik we have a situation where both our schools are going to be closing in the fall and our new school is going to open. With the closing of the schools, two-thirds of our children that are currently accessing early childhood development programs are not going to have that opportunity to continue on in their lives.

We have a great committee in Inuvik that is working very hard fundraising, volunteering, getting in-kind contributions and donations to make sure this building is going to be available, the Inuvik Children’s Development Centre is going to be available in the fall so that two-thirds of these children are not going to be left without these programs.

More importantly, in an economy where there’s a downturn do to the high cost of living in our communities, double-income families – which is also essential just to make it by – are going to have to rely on single-income families if one parent has to stay home and take care of the child. This is not just a problem or an issue that is facing Inuvik but it is an issue that is facing all of the communities in the Northwest Territories. In order to achieve success within our youth and our economy and our families, we need to invest in infrastructure and have these spaces readily available so that our children can succeed and participate in these developmental programs.

We have to invest in our early childhood development for future benefits of this government, future benefits of our communities and the future benefits of our families so that every child has an opportunity to succeed in their life, and it starts in this House. It starts with the commitments, the programs and the funding to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our belief in the critical need for action on early childhood development has become well known to

this Assembly. It is good to see things getting underway, but we need to start off right.

The basis of ECD is brain and body development which begins before birth and is most critical through to the age of about six to eight. There are two stages. From prenatal to age three, the focus needs to be on establishment of physical and mental health and resilience through development of secure and consistent relationships with caring adults. Programs to support that development such as nutrition, healthy baby and family, recreation and play, parenting skills and parental understanding of the importance of ECD are shown to produce the greatest positive results. Once a solid foundation is laid in the early years, transition to an educational focus begins, again accompanied by continuing family and community support for the physical and mental health of the child.

Healthy development in the early years, especially birth to age three, depends on healthy relationships. All children from birth need at least one continuous caring relationship with an adult who will respond when the child is distressed and provide the security a child needs to explore her environment. It is critical to understand this connection between healthy relationships and healthy development, and to make sure policies and programs give families the support they need to provide children with stable, nurturing relationships in the first years of life.

In order to raise healthy children, we must help parents and caregivers to be healthy and free from undue stress. These need to fall within the services of our Health and Social Services department and with the family support side of ECE. From the very beginning of this work, we need to ensure a shared and cooperative approach across our Education and Health departments, with the leads at different stages clearly identified. We can’t disconnect the zero to three years programming from the efforts starting at age four or leave school staff designing programs for the early years of childhood development.

We are blessed with the wealth of public expertise and the NGO sector with such experts as the NWT Literacy Council and at the community level where family support centres such as in Hay River, Tulita and Yellowknife and child centres such as in Tulita are already delivering an array of early years ECD services. Based on the experience of now so many other jurisdictions, opportunities are huge and exciting. Let’s get all our best minds, government and public, to the table and begin cooperative work. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been said by our elders that the weapons of our warriors today will be education; that our battles will be won in schools, colleges, universities and on our land. It also has been said that we will not win our battles in the bars or in the streets or in jails. We will actually stay stuck blaming others if we stay there.

I want to say that this early childhood development theme that we are having here, I support it so much that we should be looking at helping the parents. Usually it is the single mothers that stay home with the child for the first three years and strengthen that connection with the little child to the mother. The mother does a lot when they stay home with the child. They do the house management. They do counselling. They do multi-tasking. They do everything. They even cook our meals after we come home and they do everything. Our programs should be really looking at how we support the mothers in staying home and strengthening that strong relationship so they give that child that sense of security, respect and identity, so when that child goes out, that child carries the values of education to the schools. We are caught in a busy society where the mother has to also maybe find work, through no fault of her own, because of the situation we’re in.

So the government really needs to see that the real education of a child is at home. Even as one of our Members said, before the child is born. My grandmother was in midwifery and she delivered a lot of babies in Tulita – they say over 250 babies – and each baby that she delivered she gave them a Dene name, and with that Dene name came that person’s identity and character and strength. We haven’t had that yet.

So we should be looking at some of these things that will give a future to a child of good. No matter which role they work in, they’ll be good and strong and we can be proud of them. We have really good children in the Northwest Territories, but we need to support the mother first of all. So I hope this government will look at something like that and support the early childhood development of our people. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to acknowledge the early childhood programs that we offer to preschoolers in our communities. These programs are really important. The early stages of learning and support are continuing education for the rest of our lives. The teachers and instructors in these programs inspire the curiosity that children have when they are toddlers. It is a great thing to see the kids who are given an opportunity to explore and grow in a fun way.

I would like to acknowledge the teachers and the instructors in all the communities, but especially in the Mackenzie Delta. They are very clever in the techniques that they use. Training is important. We need to make sure that we offer good education and training for the people who dedicate their working lives to our youngest children.

That is one way our government can support early childhood programs. We need to support the community-based organizations. For example, if the child care workers were paid better, that would attract our younger people to that field of work.

The education that begins early in their lives will spur our children to challenge themselves and to get top marks later in life. That is how our territory will grow and prosper.

I want to encourage our communities to teach their traditional languages to children right from birth. I know that this is happening to some degree and I want to praise those centres where our languages are taught to our children.

Our government must pay close attention to early childhood development. I want to encourage the departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services. They should do as much as they can as soon as they can to improve the support for early childhood development programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse this past March and first of all I want to thank the City of Whitehorse and the organizing committee for excellent games. I want to congratulate Nunavut for their being awarded the Stu Hodgson Award for best sportsmanship.

I was very impressed with our athletes in Whitehorse both on and off the field. On the field they gave it their all. Off the field they were great ambassadors for the Northwest Territories and had many positive comments from a lot of the other families that were there.

We had some really good results. Our speed skating and our ski biathlon teams could have almost chartered their own plane back with all their medals.

Mr. Speaker, the reason I’m wearing this jersey today is the gold medal game was held between the NWT and the Yukon and I had a friendly wager going with my counterpart in the Yukon, Minister Taylor, and I’m fulfilling the terms of our wager now. We had a very strong cheering section in Whitehorse. Mr. Speaker was there, Commissioner Tuccaro, MLA Hawkins, plus many parents that made the trip there. The boys gave a really good effort, but at the end of the day they lost the game 2 to 1 and the gold medal went to the home team. I think we were just being gracious visitors.

I appreciate the indulgence of the Speaker and the Members of the Assembly for allowing me this opportunity to fulfill my obligation. I do have to return the jersey back to Yukon. I will return it along with an NWT jersey that they can plan on wearing after Fairbanks 2014.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure today to recognize in the gallery a resident of Hay River South and my new constituency assistant for the Hay River office. Wendy Morgan continues to work in the Yellowknife office and Orlanda Patterson mans the Hay River office.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize a couple of constituents from Weledeh: Barb Hood, executive director of NWT Seniors’ Society; and Amanda Mallon, city councillor.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple of constituents here as well. I’d like to recognize Kathryn Paddock, who is with the NWT Literacy Council as the family literacy coordinator. With Kathryn is Patricia Ilgok, who is the family literacy trainee. Sitting just in front of them is my

wonderful assistant, Amanda Mallon. I, too, want to recognize the seniors who have graced us with their presence today: Barb Hood, Yvonne Quick, who is a resident of Frame Lake – Yahoo! – and Sandra Taylor.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to acknowledge those three wise ladies sitting at the top there. That would be Yvonne Quick, Barb Hood and Sandra Taylor. Most notably, Sandra Taylor, of course, is a constituent of Yellowknife Centre and she’s also the president of the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society and she does a great job there.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’d like to welcome all visitors here in the public gallery today. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings today.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions.

---Interjection

Item 6, acknowledgements. Sorry, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 6, acknowledgements.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Yakeleya, you may continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories held its Third Annual Education Hall of Fame in the Great Hall of the Legislative Assembly. The inductees were chosen by five judges and congratulate all the chosen inductees from their regions.

The Sahtu wishes to congratulate Ms. Betty Barnaby of Fort Good Hope, who has been teaching at the Chief T’Selehye School and recently graduated from the Teachers Education Program in Fort Smith; a double winner indeed. I, along with the Sahtu region, would like to congratulate Ms. Betty Barnaby for her prestigious recognition. Truly education is lifelong learning.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 3, Members’ statements.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Nadli, you may continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Often it’s stated that children are special gifts in our future. I could not agree more to this strong statement. There’s a statement in Dene culture: You become a child twice in your life – in the beginning and the latter part of your life. This is what I understand is the special relationship between children and elders.

Children are the spirit of our communities. Parents and extended families play a critical role in raising our children. In the northern communities we have some initiatives in preschools, daycares, playschools and kindergarten programs. I understand governments have frameworks outlining general principles for children, but do not go far enough for a goal that we agreed to in the fall.

We acknowledge that there are pressures on the labour force in the NWT for qualified and trained workers, particularly for the need for more women to enter the workforce. This government should be able to do more to make this happen. This government perhaps could maybe consider a legislation to ensure there are fiscal commitments to ensure that more efforts are directed towards preschool initiatives and ensuring that there are general initiatives in terms of recognizing the need for programs to happen in the beginning of life for children in terms of at least from when they were born, right to when they go to school. At the same time maybe there needs to be more research and analysis towards discussion and towards achieving at least a plan to implement programs immediately.

In the fall we all agreed that we wanted to work together. At the same time there was a goal to ensure that we develop preschool initiatives. I could not agree more. We pride ourselves in the Northwest Territories that we do things differently than mainstream Canada. This is an opportunity for us to establish a very unique program for the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Item 8, written questions. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have one written question today.

Would the Premier please provide a list of all direct appointments made by Cabinet since the beginning of the 17th Assembly? The Premier’s response

should specifically note the employing departments and reasons why competitions were not held for positions filled by direct appointment.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, replies to budget address. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of standing and special committees. Item 14, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 15, tabling of documents. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following five documents, entitled “2009-2010 Report of the Legal Services Board of the Northwest Territories,” “2010-2011 Report of the Legal Services Board of the Northwest Territories,” “21st Annual Report of the

Victims Assistance Committee of the NWT – Part 2, 2009-2010,” “22nd Annual Report of the Victims

Assistance Committee of the NWT – Part 2, 2010-2011,” and “23rd Annual Report of the Victims

Assistance Committee of the Northwest Territories – Part 1, 2011-2012.”

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table an article from the May 30th edition of the Hay River Hub along with an e-mail correspondence between myself and a reporter from The Hub.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 16, notices of motion. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, June 1, 2012, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Ministers of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services work together to bring forward proposals for new and comprehensive early childhood development programming to begin in the current fiscal year, including a plan and funding to assist communities with securing suitable space for early childhood development programs;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will be seeking unanimous consent to deal with this motion today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Item 17, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 18, motions. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted

You may proceed, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS early childhood development is a priority of the 17th Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS the mandate letters issued by the Premier to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and to the Minister of Health and Social Services instruct them to work together to

develop and implement a comprehensive Early Childhood Development Framework;

AND WHEREAS the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment has acknowledged that healthy childhoods are the best foundations to develop healthy, productive adults;

AND WHEREAS the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative recognized that fundamental prerequisite of improved early childhood development;

AND WHEREAS it is widely recognized among researchers and educators that the first three years of life are the critical period of laying the groundwork for language, cognitive and social development and lifelong mental and physical health;

AND WHEREAS the development of early childhood programs for the prenatal period and the first three years of life requires a Health and Social Services lead and the development of programs for later ages requires an Education, Culture and Employment lead;

AND WHEREAS the World Health Organization has stated that early childhood is the most important phase for overall development throughout the lifespan, that brain and biological development during the first years of life is highly influenced by an infant’s environment, and that early experiences determine health, education and economic participation for the rest of the life;

AND WHEREAS a recent World Bank report concluded that no other development investment boasts a higher payoff for people and for the economies than early childhood development;

AND WHEREAS the government failed to bring forward recommendations for a new or enhanced early childhood development programming in the 2012-2013 budget;

AND WHEREAS each year of delays to the implementation of new early childhood initiatives deprives a year’s cohort of children of programming that will help them to fulfil their potential throughout their lives;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Ministers of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services work together to bring forward proposals for new and comprehensive early childhood development programming to begin in the current fiscal year, including a plan and funding to assist communities with securing suitable space for early childhood development programs;

AND FURTHER, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive

response to this motion within 120 days. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the seconder of the motion, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is this the opportunity to speak to the motion?

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the motion here, and appreciate my colleague bringing this forward. I would like to start by just noting that there has been an incredible amount of new research in the area of early childhood development that jurisdictions are drawing upon, and we’re starting to realize that and it’s quite an opportunity. I’d like to go over just a little bit of that here today.

Brain development occurs during the first few years of life. It really starts during the prenatal period and happens, really, the physical development, during the first three years, and then the full development, in terms of its capacity, during those first three years and a little bit beyond. The unfortunate part is if that development doesn’t happen during that stage, it becomes much more challenging to get that development done later, and certainly more expensive, in terms of the government programs and so on.

However, if children do develop in a vigorous and healthy way, their brains and their bodies, they are at an incredible level of lifetime resilience and learning capacity. Development of pathways – and that’s what this seems to depend on, the research is showing – is that there are pathways that develop in the brain with proper early childhood development and a healthy family approach. With that development, these pathways, first of all, require a caring relationship with a consistent care provider, as has been noted. Typically, these are the parents. Interactions with parents in a healthy way helps the child deal with stress it encounters – and it’s natural to encounter stress on a regular basis – and this contributes to building resiliency. Without these trusting and caring relationships, however, when a child does encounter stress, the stress does not get resolved and the impacts of that stress build and become what the professionals call toxic forms of stress, and those inhibit the development of pathways in the brain itself and the resilience that that brings.

It’s also been found that language development, for example, really it peaks within the first year of life and declines rapidly thereafter, the capacity for learning languages. That capacity is established during this early stage. That’s so important to know about. The research also shows that genetics play a role. With these healthy and caring relationships from consistent care providers, genes that are part of our makeup get expressed and activated and

that hugely enhances our capacity as a human being throughout the rest of the child’s life. Again, the opposite is without those caring relationships and proper early childhood development support, the probability of that genetic expression goes down. We want to encourage that for lifelong benefits.

I mentioned language, and that’s an important one for the Northwest Territories where we have 11 official languages and we want to ensure the health of our languages over time.

I’d also like to note that the brain is considered plastic. That is, it does have a lot of ability to recover from stress and so on, and with effort, new wiring, these new pathways can be established, but getting it right the first time is optimal for government. If we wait until pre-kindergarten, for example, to intervene in a child’s development, we are starting too late. People often assume that a child is a sponge or an empty vessel up to a certain development point. In fact, what happens very early in the foundation is that establishing this foundation though healthy pathways and development is the key to everything that follows.

I also want to note that brain development, based on the research, will, in fact, affect both learning, such as the acquisition of skills, ability to concentrate and adapt, and health. That’s from cardiovascular health to stress susceptibility for the rest of the child’s life. Again, all this is by way of saying we have a huge and exciting opportunity here to do some good work.

I think my colleague and others have mentioned where jurisdictions have focused in on this and are focusing today, they have found a huge impact, a positive impact on positive economic development, something that this House regularly talks about. We know that our social costs, two-thirds of our budget, are high and rising, and we, rather unfortunately, lead the country in many of our social statistics. It has been demonstrated, again, investments in early childhood development is the best single thing we can do to address those things, and this is including things like our educational achievements, corrections, and of course, physical and mental health.

All of this work depends, of course, as we’ve heard, on good family relationships. The child, first and foremost, is relying on its parents, and so we want good and healthy relationships there. We know that coming out of residential school and so on, there’s still a lot of healing to be done in the North. I’m pleased to say that early childhood development can help break that cycle and help the children. It is also being found in studies in Harlem, New York, for example, where this is happening, that in fact it can also have great benefits to the parents through their learning about early childhood development and how to have healthy relationships with their

very small children. There are huge opportunities on all fronts there.

It’s not surprising that other adults, the extended family, the friends of the family and ultimately as a community itself, community relationships and non-government organizations all provide critical roles, and along with those, of course, is government. That is what we are on about today. We would like to see government stepping up to the plate in a very knowledgeable way and working with experts in the field with the appropriate leads at the appropriate time, because this is a complex issue that extends right through from early childhood. We have been falling short on the earliest years, but it is a transitory thing that develops throughout the early life of a child through school. All aspects are important but the foundation is laid down in those early years, and we want to see that recognized and we want to begin programs being put in place and funded again in a coordinated and sophisticated way right this fiscal year.

We have been talking about this obviously for years now. I will leave it at that.

Again, I appreciate all of the notes from my colleagues today and they’re speaking out on this. I look forward to good work with the Ministers of Education and Health to forward this work that we are calling for today. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I allowed Mr. Bromley to speak to this because he was a seconder, so the motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not too sure how much more I can add to Mr. Bromley’s statement. I think he said it very well. It gave us all the information that we need to go ahead and make a decision on this.

Being new to the government, it is just something that I assumed that this government was working on and taking care of, and to be in here now and make these changes and be part of it, I am very honoured to help work on taking this initiative through.

Early childhood zero to three years old, Mr. Bromley hit it right on the head with the brain and biological developments, the language, the cognitive and social developments within that time frame which is very important. It allows our youth to have a chance to live a healthy lifestyle as they grow up to be prepared for when they go into the school system, a school system where we don’t always see the positive impacts that come from this.

Positively with the early childhood development investment that this government goes to, we can positively impact the low language and speaking levels we have in K to 3 right now. We can positively impact the inclusive schooling and the

amount of dollars that this government spends on inclusive schooling. We can positively impact our graduation rates so students, when they get into the school system, are ready to learn, they have all the tools ready to take that on and be successful. Not only with the students but we are also looking at families and communities.

Just coming from the motion here, I just want to restate this. A recent World Bank report concluded that no other development investment hosts a higher pay-off for people and for economies than early childhood development. That alone should tell us that we should be putting some of our dollars into early childhood development which will impact our territory, our economy, our communities, our families and give our kids a chance to grow up successfully.

With that said, I will allow for other Members to speak to the motion. I thank everyone’s comments today with their Member’s statements. At the end of this motion, I will be asking for a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this motion. I very strongly support this motion. The sentiments towards the need for early childhood development programming have been expressed by pretty much all Members here. I totally agree with the sentiments that have been expressed by my colleagues. I appreciate the actions that are currently being undertaken by the departments of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment. I believe it is a start. I believe it is a slow start, but I’m very glad to see that they’re doing some work and that they’re working together. Collaboration between these two departments is absolutely necessary.

I believe one of my colleagues, in their statement, talked about the fact that zero to preschool or to the start of school tends to be with Health and from anything within school years tends to be with Education. I feel quite strongly that we need to go beyond two departments working together. I think we need to establish one place where this work is done. We need to establish a lead person or a lead area within one of those two departments to take on this job. We have to clearly establish who is leading the development of the framework and who is going to lead the development of the program that is being asked for in this motion. I don’t think it’s a difficult thing to do. I think it is quite possible we can second people from one department to another. We can transfer people from one department to another. It is relatively easily done, in my mind.

The other thing that I think is extremely important and that there is not enough focus on – and we spoke to this a bit yesterday in Committee of the Whole – is the need to train early childhood

education staff. We don’t do enough of that. We don’t highlight those programs enough. We don’t market them. We don’t promote them with our residents. As was mentioned, we certainly don’t pay people enough for the jobs that they do. Many of them are committed and dedicated to their jobs, but we don’t pay them enough. I think that we ought to put a higher focus on our programming at the college and that we ought to put a higher focus on early childhood education teachers.

I think if we put money and effort into this particular issue, and more so than what we are currently doing for sure, we are not going to be out in the wilderness. We are certainly not ahead of the pack on this, but we would be doing a national movement. I believe right now that there is a large focus on ECD. We need to get there. It is so well documented, as Mr. Bromley alluded, and as any report will tell you, early development of children has a huge impact on the effect of their life later on.

We have so many of our residents who struggle with addictions, with drugs and alcohol, any number of difficulties. We have a lot of them who are affected by mental illness. Many of those issues start from an early age. They are developed when children are very young. If we can nip that in the bud, so to speak, and get the right environment for kids between zero and when they start school or even just zero to three and then work from there upwards, I think it is going to have a huge impact on our residents as a whole, but it will also, as I mentioned, have an impact on our bottom line and our budget; positive impact, not negative.

I think if we really believe in our Assembly priorities – and I mentioned it in my statement – we would be putting money into it. I talked about prevention and I talked about early childhood development. We are not, I don’t believe, in this budget, putting the emphasis on both of those two items that we should. We are speaking to the ECE budget today.

I fully support the motion and I strongly encourage my colleagues to vote in support as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand here before you today in strong support of the motion that we have before the House. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement and also with the motion here, we need to send a very strong and meaningful message not just to the government here but to all those watching, all those departments out there who are collaborating to make sure that this is a high priority. The Assembly here has made that a priority. We are hoping that we are doing the same.

As mentioned earlier, in zero to three is really the target and focus of what we are trying to get across

and that requires a lot of paradigm shift in thinking. That also requires changes in our behaviour. That requires changes in what we have before us. What we have before us is a 10-year-old document. Things have changed. Technology has changed. Science has changed.

As the Minister mentioned earlier, there is lots at our disposal that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that we are actually in the wrong part of our budget dealing with the wrong part of this equation. We need to move that issue over, along with new money.

As I mentioned, without this new money and as we’re seeing, as the Member for Frame Lake alluded, we’ll be negotiating and debating our budget for ECE later and it’s very, very displeasing to see that all these new initiatives and all this desire and bravado towards change shows no new money. I have grave concerns with that and I’m sure it will be debated later on in the House.

Our children need that support. We need this new money. We need new initiatives within the budget to help us push that first domino. That first domino creates a cascade. Anyone who’s seen dominoes move one behind the other will see beyond a reasonable doubt that that cascade is very evident. We need to push that first domino, and that starts with a proper budget and that starts with a proper desire.

In essence, that old cliché that we need to put a little hustle behind the muscle is never more evident as we see here today. I ask that from the Minister and I ask that from the department and I will speak in favour of this motion.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be speaking in support of this motion. Thank you, Mr. Moses and Mr. Bromley, for bringing this to the floor. They’re highlighting the importance of our youth, highlighting the importance of our workers, highlighting the importance of our families and the people that put these programs together in the Department of Education, the Department of Health, and the government itself to continue to support the early childhood development.

I spoke earlier about supporting the most important teachers in the child’s life are the parents. Usually above 90 percent it’s the mother. Having support for the mother with the child. More importantly, how do we get the teachers and the child to work together for each other and get them support?

I want to say that in my nine years of being MLA I’ve travelled to the Sahtu, and at times I go to the preschools and I go to the places where they offer these programs. It’s quite amazing to see the little kids with the teachers. Sometimes you ask the teachers or staff what they’re doing to make it in the

school session or the years that they’ve been there. Sometimes they do some fundraising. Sometimes some of the oil companies or mining companies or the government themselves provides meals for the little kids that come to the preschools. It’s quite amazing to sit amongst the little kids there. We have a place where it says something about the government, that they are supporting something like that that’s good for the parents and also for training for the teachers that go and teach at these early childhood development programs.

We need to continue supporting their training, support them in what they’re doing, because they are setting the foundation for our future. The language is one way of looking at it. We need to look at how we support these children in our communities.

I’d like to thank Mr. Moses and Mr. Bromley for bringing this motion to the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be voting in favour of the motion. I think it’s the timeliness of this issue and to highlight it in this House and to get all Members of the Legislative Assembly to move forward with this issue. It’s been on the backburner for many, many years. Just how it impacts the smaller communities is my concern. It does have to be resourced and the resources are there currently, but it’s few and far between. That’s why I’ll be supporting this motion.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on this occasion and I feel very strong about this motion. I think it’s an opportunity for us to go forward together. I think the time and the circumstance and all the signs are out there that we need to go forward. This government needs to do more in terms of trying to at least broaden our foundation, and one of the pillars is education. The early start that we have in developing the advances of peoples’ minds and at least these gifts that we call our children and working with them, the more investment that we’re making for our future. Therefore, I will vote in favour of this motion.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement today, clearly there are a lot of examples of how early childhood education can be implemented and certainly it’s a program that can start a phenomenal difference into a young person’s life. If we build that foundation it means a lot.

I say to this McLeod government, don’t just heed the warning from us. I mean, there are many parents and experts that will tell you this is such a critical part for the development of our children and the future of our children in our education system. We all know good education is the backbone of a solid foundation going forward in someone’s future. There are a lot of researchers that have often pointed out about the fact that a good education gives people more opportunity which keeps them away from at risk.

It would be nice, of course, if we could develop a universal early childhood education program, but the fact is we know it won’t be like that. The reality is we could stand up here today and get behind this type of initiative to say we’re going to make sure we have some type of program that is invested and involved in every community. So our kids, just like the old American saying goes, no child left behind. We could take on that attitude, the positive attitude and can-do approach which says in the Northwest Territories we’re going to try real hard and make sure that no child is left behind by serious intervention and investment by our territory.

Earlier today I also pointed out the fact that there are different domains or certainly different pillars recognized under early childhood development: social development, physical development, intellectual development, creative development, and certainly emotional development. Each in its own way is a pillar to the future that these kids are moving forward on. It’s important that we invest in ways to recognize some kids need more help than others in certain areas. It’s these early assessments that are so critical because let’s invest at a time when we can truly make a difference on the longer term outcome of people. By sitting here ignoring this possibility or opportunity, if I may say, what we’re doing is setting them up for a long-term failure. By all means, we’re not just failing them, we’re failing ourselves.

Children living in low-income households are sometimes those who need this most. I don’t want to get down to the nitty-gritty of describing one household or the other, but there are certain elements of kids coming from homes that don’t get the support that they need and this is where government needs to step in and help play the role. It doesn’t mean if you’re coming from a family that’s well to do or not. Any kid could struggle with these types of burdens. Certainly this is our chance to invest. Our educators are asking for this and we need to make sure that we provide not only the stuff that I talked about, but we need to provide a nurturing and stimulating environment that helps reward and invest in these kids to bring out their best. We need a plan and a strategy that works on language development. We need to look at the uniqueness of these children through assessment

and say, you know what, they may need a little strength in certain areas.

Recently I was at a school board meeting with a couple of my other colleagues and they talked about one child which is one of many that showed up and couldn’t speak for the longest time there when they entered school. That was only one example of several examples they had provided. This is the type of resource capacity that the schools need to make sure that our kids get the best start. If they show up in our education system, we can’t expect kindergarten to solve all the problems going forward. Some of this early intervention is highlighted already by my colleagues here. It has to start at age three or even, in special cases, earlier.

There are so many elements to early childhood education and I’m sure I’ve said some of them. Certainly not all of them. My colleagues are doing certainly their best to highlight the importance of this particular program. The fact is we have to make a territorial program that’s understood and implemented in all regions. Not just Yellowknife or the big centres such as Hay River and Inuvik, but into our communities because they’re so critical.

That’s all I really want to get down to on this particular subject today. It’s a passionate subject not just of myself but all the other colleagues here. If we have recognized one important thing, it’s about the value that we have recognized that we’ve placed on our youth and how important that particular issue is. There is no better investment than investing in our children. It doesn’t come down to anything more complicated than that. We can hope all we want, but today we can make the right type of investments. A solid early childhood education program, as I talked about earlier today, is the type of investment that we need to do. That would be the foundation, truly a hallmark of our North.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government agrees that early childhood development is important and also it is one of the priorities of this government. I would like to thank the Members for raising the significance of the early childhood development, because Education, Culture and Employment has already made it a priority and is researching the best way to proceed.

ECE is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Services to revise and renew the existing Early Childhood Development Framework for Action. The chief medical health officer has recently been identified to lead the development of the revised draft framework. A working group has been struck for renewal of the framework with representatives from the Department of Health and

Social Services and Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The consultation will be an important part of the process and will be taken across the Northwest Territories in the fall of 2012.

Early learning and care is a component of the framework. Education, Culture and Employment is planning the following developments under the early learning and care component of the revised framework:

• The expansion of the early childhood education

and care programs using the Aboriginal Head Start model and a new Northwest Territories-developed curriculum.

• Initiation of a two-year on-site early childhood

development and care diploma through Fort Smith Campus of Aurora College. The transition year will be 2013-2014. The first graduates will be in May 2016.

• The development of trial territorial early learning

framework through partnership with Yukon and Nunavut to be completed in April 2013.

Once this final stage of the review is completed, a renewal of the Early Childhood Development Framework will be put forward for consideration during the 2013-2014 planning cycle.

We have already begun working with the leaders of the Northwest Territories on this particular topic. On May 4, 2012, Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment hosted initial discussions with the stakeholders on the development of child and family resource centres. The departments are working on an action plan to develop two such centres in the current fiscal year.

On May 8th and 9th I held my first annual meeting

with the school boards and leaders of all major Aboriginal organizations in the Northwest Territories. The four pillars of Aboriginal Student Achievement were discussed at this high-level education and Aboriginal leadership meeting. Of course, early childhood education and child care is the first pillar of ASA. The regional leaders broke into regional groups and discussed and made recommendations on early childhood education and child care. The results of both meetings resulted in revamping the Early Childhood Development Framework for Action.

As this is a recommendation to our government, Cabinet members will abstain from voting.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. I’ll allow the mover of the motion for closing remarks. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve done a lot of work in my time in the communities within my governments. I’ve participated on the front line with a lot of community workers, teachers, parents, concerned Members, leaders in our communities. What it always comes down to is everybody sees it

in their communities. The social issues that impact our community can be addressed by putting money and investing into our early childhood development. Like I said when I was talking earlier, I thought this government was working on this already. I had the assumption and confidence that our government was working to make our communities and economy a lot healthier and safer. To come into this government as a new Member and to see that eight months into this Assembly we’re actually asking the government to invest money into early childhood development that’s going to our population and our residents for years to come. I’m very proud that on this side we get the chance to vote in favour of a motion to support our families back home, to support our constituents, to support our communities and our families, to support our educators, our health practitioners, the people in the justice system, all the departments that are affected by the lack of investment into this initiative, which is early childhood development.

It’s stated that every dollar you invest in early childhood development, the returns are about $6 to $8. That alone should say that we should be investing more money in there. As we go through the budget, some of the line items that I’ve been seeing are very shocking to me and the lack of funding in some areas is even more shocking. As this government, we have the opportunity so that when we invest today, that in years to come we’re going to start to see a healthier, more educated group of youth, a healthier, more educated generation of adults in our Northwest Territories and in our communities so that we can start to see the benefits of what we do today in years to come.

I thank all Members here for their comments, for their passion, their concern for our people of the Northwest Territories. I’d also like to give the Premier an opportunity to allow his Cabinet to vote freely on this, to allow their Members back home, their family, their communities, show them the support that they need for this early childhood development.

Mr. Speaker, I’m going to be asking for a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member is seeking a recorded vote. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour, please stand.

All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.

Thank you, colleagues. All those in favour, 11; all those opposed, zero; abstentions, six. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Motion 3-17(3), Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d prefer to bring that motion forward tomorrow, with your permission. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. You have my permission. Item 19, first reading of bills. Mr. Abernethy.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 2, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2012, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Bill 2 has had first reading.

---Carried

Item 20, second reading of bills. Item 21, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 2-17(3), Commissioner’s Opening Address: Creating the Conditions for Success; Tabled Document 3-17(3), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2012-2013; and Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, with Ms. Bisaro in the chair.

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have three items for consideration. Tabled Document 2-17(3), Commissioner’s Opening Address: Creating the Conditions for Success; Tabled Document 3-17(3), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2012-2013; and Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to resume consideration of Tabled Document 3-17(3), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2012-2013, with Education, Culture and Employment, Transportation, and possibly Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. We will resume after a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

I call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are dealing with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Minister Lafferty, do you have witnesses to bring into the Chamber?

Yes, Madam Chair.

Does the committee agree to bring witnesses in?

Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses into the Chamber?

Mr. Lafferty, if you could introduce the witnesses for the record, please.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. To my left is acting deputy minister of ECE Gloria Iatridis, and to my right is Paul Devitt, director of business strategic services within ECE. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister. Committee, we are on page 10-17, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, operations expenditure summary, $192.575 million. We have a list from yesterday. I will start with Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously we are discussing issues regarding page 17. Inclusive to this page is the line item under culture and heritage. I want to spend a few minutes here on that note, knowing full well that ECE and ITI work jointly with the arts.

The other day tabled in the House by the Minister of ITI was a supporting statement which basically talked in favour of supporting of the arts. Such statements as an NWT artisan make positive economic and cultural impact on our territory and others. I’m not denying the fact that the department or the Minister, obviously, support these areas.

Given the budget item that I see here, we are seeing a very small, modest increase in the delivery of cultural and heritage which would include promoting NWT arts. Can the Minister or his designate indicate what these extra monies are in the budget? Where is that money going to be allocated to?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Lafferty.

Madam Chair, the culture and heritage, as the Members would know, there has been an increase over the years. We will continue to promote that within our department. This time around the difference is basically to offset

the costs of Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. There was a fire there, so it is a repair to the building, so approximately $520,000 in that area. Mahsi.

Madam Chair, thanks to the Minister for clarifying where that overage is going to be spent.

Most recently an organization here in the Northwest Territories – and I refer to them as the Artists Run Community Centre, or ARCC for short – unfortunately lost their facility due to an expansion of a building or construction of a new government building in the downtown corridor. We know that, as I say, the statements that we have heard in the House with respect to supporting arts and the culture regarding arts is a priority. However, this organization, which really is a backbone or a facility that helps support and nurtures and fundamentally creates the baseline for art in the Northwest Territories, are now without a home. Can the Minister indicate to us why nothing in this budget – knowing full well that this has been an ask by this Member as well as Regular Members here on this – why given the fact that there is lots of support for the arts, that this organization who had lost their home due to one of our own expansion buildings and, again, nothing in this budget reflects that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, this is an area that we have been monitoring closely since it first came up. Currently we don’t have capital funds to build or have an establishment for those types of facilities, but we do provide funding through the NWT Arts Council and working closely with ITI because they do have other sources of funds as well.

Within my department, we provide funds to various organizations. We can provide this organization through the Members as well. When it comes to capital, we haven’t allocated funds to offset the costs for capital infrastructure on this specific topic.

Madam Chair, again I appreciate the fact that the Minister does have a list of supporting organizations that are recipients of funding. My specific question is for the Artists Run Community Centre. What does the Minister intend to tell this group of artists – and they are a fairly large group of artists – what kind of support can we provide them and facilitating and fostering their field so that really it goes in line with what this government is doing, trying to promote the work of artisans and yet there’s no facility for them to be promoted in? Thank you, Madam Chair.

At this point we can provide information to the Artist Run Community Centre and the programs that we currently have within ECE. Most of the applications and the proposals go through the NWT Arts Council as well. They make decisions based on the needs of those

arts and the performance in the Northwest Territories. So I can commit that within my department I’ll be working closely with ITI to identify those programming dollars that they can potentially access, this organization that we’re speaking of. Mahsi.

I appreciate the Minister’s support. I will take the Minister up on his offering with the Minister of ITI. I will make that invitation out hopefully to other Members to hopefully be participants in that in order to support NWT art, specifically for the Artist Run Community Centre. So I’d like to thank the Minister for his indulgence. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Minister, did you wish to comment?

No, I’ve already made a commitment. So I’ll definitely do my part with the Minister of ITI and also the NWT Arts Council that we provide funding to. Mahsi.

Thank you. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to follow up a little bit on the questions about inclusive schooling. I know this is an area that’s been evolving. I have two concerns. One is, as I understand it, we have hooked the amount of inclusive schooling funding to the total amount the school gets and it’s a proportion. As budgets have soared, so has inclusive schooling. That does not allow the increase or the changes in inclusive schooling funding to be tied to actual need. So that’s the first aspect of it.

The second is an expression of the need for change from school boards that recommend that there be a base provision of inclusive schooling funding provided and then an additional amount based on an assessment of the needs of the children in that school for special consideration. So as a result, our inclusive schooling obviously, according to the budget here, has soared and I’m wondering how are we going to be managing this in a more effective way and hopefully at the same time improve the effectiveness of our programs through the inclusive schooling needs. Thank you, Mr. Chair, two questions.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.