This is page numbers 3261 – 3302 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was work.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Members for speaking to this point on the motion that was brought forward. I would like to thank the Member, Mr. Bromley, for his continuous support and also the Regular Members as well.

Early childhood learning and provision of quality child care in the NWT, of course, has been at the forefront of our goals and objectives. Healthy, educated people free from poverty is one of the goals of this Assembly and it starts in a child. We have to recognize achieving our goals for our people depends on a strong economy. I’ve heard that from some of the Members here. That helps create a fiscal capacity that we need to provide programs and services that people rely on.

We can’t invest money that we don’t have. The overall pot will shrink if we don’t also take steps to create a strong, diversified economy. This is also a priority identified by this Assembly. This government fully understands that healthy, well-adjusted children become fully functioning and contributing adults, and the experience of a child’s early years affects their entire life. We know that. Through our work in early childhood over the five years, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment alone has invested just under $33.5 million in our young children with the introduction of the Early Childhood Development Framework. Those investments will continue.

Our investment must be strategic, well thought out, bearing in mind our fiscal realities, and we believe – and this has been affirmed by Members of this House many times – that money invested in the early years is money well spent. I share Mr. Bromley’s interest, and Members' as well, to provide quality child care, but before jumping into universal child care as a fix, I would like to share some of the key facts for the Members.

Like Quebec and other provincial and territorial jurisdictions, the GNWT does not build and run child care facilities. Instead our government subsidizes licenced daycare operations, regulates them and, where required, subsidizes low-income parents who act as daycare providers by the private sector.

The Income Assistance program, as Member Bromley alluded to, provides financial support towards the cost of child care for low-income NWT families who are either working or enrolled in school in the NWT. We provide subsidies for licenced child care operators, which creates incentives to run such facilities. We also develop regulations and monitor facilities to ensure that child care facilities are safe and help our children learn and grow in a positive environment.

The reality is, however, that many of our communities do not have child care centres that we can subsidize, as Member Blake alluded to. Eleven communities in the NWT currently have no licenced child care facility. Meaning that at $7 per day, as in Quebec, this will not work for them in the small communities. It should also come as no surprise to these 11 communities, our small communities where no licenced daycares currently exist. The approach taken by Quebec and Scandinavia doesn’t easily translate to the NWT realities. Using Quebec’s approach would potentially exclude one-third of our small communities that have no licenced child care program and where a private sector market for daycare will struggle to emerge.

It is our obligation to find affordable solutions that work for all of our communities. That is why my department has been working on a multi-pronged approach that is flexible enough to meet the unique needs and desires of parents in the small and large communities.

Education, Culture and Employment, along with the Department of Health and Social Services, has done considerable work to study concrete actions that support the Early Childhood Development Framework, as Member Moses identified, as well, with a view of providing access to quality child care as well as empowering parents and caregivers to have tools to be supportive parents. For example, we are looking at ways to empower parents who want to stay at home and take care of their children. Daycare isn’t for everyone, and we must respect that as well. We are also looking at ways to ensure that child care facilities are staffed by qualified workers who earn a reasonable wage. Research also tells us that in many of our communities, schools are not being used at the fullest capacity, having a 60 percent average occupancy rate of the schools in the NWT. This reality becomes an opportunity for use of facilities to meet the community daycare child care needs in all of our communities.

At the end of the day, there is no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all solution for improving child development in the Northwest Territories. What might work in Yellowknife is not automatically appropriate for regional centres or smaller communities. We will continue to implement a flexible, multi-pronged approach to help meet the needs of child care of all NWT communities, families and parents.

Since the motion is direction to the government, Cabinet will abstain from voting. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. To the motion. I will allow the mover of the motion to have closing remarks. Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to start by thanking all of my colleagues who have spoken to this motion. I think everybody was detecting the possible gain that could be made with this program, even those that were most concerned about the bottom line, so I appreciate their support and the concerns expressed, many of which I agreed with, with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Mr. Yakeleya mentioned it’s something like over $40 per day per child daycare costs. I assumed $40 a day and did a quick calculation: For two children at $1,800 per month; three children, $2,640 per month, so we know it’s something about that. These are entirely prohibitive for, I would say, most people in the Northwest Territories.

Child care providers, it’s a bit of a roll of the dice on the quality and the training that the providers have. What we’re looking for here is looking into a system that provides a known quantity there. We want people that are early childhood education workers, early childhood development professionals to be working in those child care facilities.

The current system is loaded, as we know, with barriers. It’s not affordable. It’s poorly accessible, albeit the Minister is doing what he can to build up the program and getting support from us in the meantime. But the bottom line here is we don’t have the child care spaces. We need them, and we need them to be affordable. Many benefits were mentioned and dwelt upon, the improved labour force and so on. The birthrate is something that I hadn’t mentioned, and I knew that would catch the interest of the Finance Minister and the Premier. Apparently, that is a phenomenon that does happen. Mr. Hawkins mentioned that he would expect this to happen with this sort of support, and of course, I know this House is interested in that.

I appreciate Mrs. Groenewegen stepping out here. I believe her comment was, “I can go along with this, I guess,” so that’s stepping out for Mrs. Groenewegen. I appreciate that. But the dilemma she posed, what about the moms and dads that should be staying home and looking after these

kids. Well, that could be, and I think that is absolutely the first priority, and what we want is a system that would encourage that and support that as a first priority to the degree that it’s possible. I think we are having some mechanisms in place in our workplace now that supports that sort of thing. That is the first priority.

Unfortunately, 38 percent of the people in poverty in the Northwest Territories are single parents with children and they don’t have that option. There are many other exceptions and that’s what we’re talking about here. It could be a key underpinning to both our Anti-Poverty Strategy and our early childhood development programs. That has been mentioned. It will attract people and keep people here. Again I’m sure the Minister of Finance and the Premier will be very interested in that aspect of the program.

The benefits begin accruing quickly, very quickly, because it frees up parents to go out and get work or the education that they need. The most important bundles in our life, as I believe Mr. Hawkins mentioned, need to be reflected in our policies and programs. That’s what we’re talking about and that’s, I think, why it has the fundamental support across the House here is that true statement that I think we can all subscribe to.

There was heavy-hearted support because we need to be fiscally responsible. Again, I don’t think there’s a person in the House that disagrees with that. We do need to be fiscally responsible, and I am asking that we do the full cost accounting. In the assessment work that’s been done on these programs, in every case it has indicated benefits based on financial aspects, economic aspects and social aspects. Somebody mentioned the federal government. I think Mr. Nadli mentioned the need for federal government participation. In fact, the Quebec model shows that without putting a dime into the program, the federal government was gaining 44 cents per dollar expended by the Quebec government because of the increased economic activity that was enabled by a comprehensive, affordable child care program. Pretty darn substantial.

That assessment needs to be done. I agree with Mrs. Groenewegen, Mr. Bouchard and others that have mentioned that. That’s what we’re on about here. We want it looked at critically but with a full cost accounting approach to meet many of the needs of this House and, again, to complement the various strategies that we have and are being put in place. As we know, those that are pursuing so hard the early childhood development and anti-poverty programs, all of them will tell you this would be a core underpinning to those programs and strategies.

Again, thank you very much for this opportunity, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member has asked for a recorded vote. All those in favour, please stand.

Tony Whitford Honourary Table Officer

Mr. Bromley, Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Blake, Mrs. Groenewegen, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Nadli, Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Moses.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tony Whitford Honourary Table Officer

Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Miltenberger, Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, colleagues. All those in favour, 10; all those opposed, zero; abstentions, seven. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Item 18, first reading of bills. Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 28, Supplementary Appropriation (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2013-2014, be read for the first time.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Bill 28 has had first reading.

---Carried

Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 29, Supplementary Appropriation (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2013-2014, be read for the first time.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Bill 29 has had first reading.

---Carried

Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with first reading of Bill 30,

Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2014-2015.

---Consent granted

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 30, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2014-2015, be read for the first time.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Bill 30 has had first reading.

---Carried

Item 19, second reading of bills. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Revolving Funds Act to increase the Fur Marketing Service Revolving Fund.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Question has been called.

---Carried

Bill 27 has had second reading. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, moved into Committee of the Whole for today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 28, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2013-2014, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the fiscal year 2013-2014. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.