Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The early childhood development, as it states here, there are certain programs under that. But I will have to get my deputy to elaborate more because there is detailed information respecting whether it be the division and the budget cycle itself. I have to get my director to explain or elaborate a little bit more.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.

Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you for that information, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Devitt. My concern is, early childhood development is quite different than education. There is an obvious need for some integration at the later stages with the education. But it is so important, as the Minister knows, to, I would say, just about all of our broad government goals that it needs to stand in an autonomous way.

Is there a plan to take this early childhood development aspect out of the school services division, which there is a record of completely overwhelming the early childhood development aspects, and developing their own, sort of, organizational infrastructure or early childhood development?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

I believe this was brought to my attention. That’s part of the reason why we’re doing this education renewal. There are six pillars and part of the one pillar is to deal with the systems. I understand where the Member’s coming from. That’s an area that will be discussed through stakeholders and other educators, and providing that input, and if we need to make those changes then I have to work with my Premier and so forth, my colleagues, to make that a reality. That will be part of the discussion.

That’s all I was looking for, that we are looking into that seriously, so thank you for that.

Early Childhood Development Program, I see, is $7.7 million. Could we get a brief outline of how those dollars will be allocated and, if it’s possible, a comparison to the current fiscal year? That’s the $7.719 million under program delivery details and there were categories such as family centres and Aurora College training programs and so on that were used in the current fiscal year.

The $7.7 million that the Member is referring to, the breakdown, if I can have my director to give a detailed breakdown, if he has it before him. If not, we would have to provide that information. I don’t really see it in front of me, but we’re just going through, if you can give us a minute. Mr. Devitt has more detailed information as he just found the paper.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.

Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Bromley.

I appreciate that information. Perhaps the Minister could provide, at his convenience, a comparison with the current fiscal year so we know where the changes have been made. More specifically, the House approved $1.25

million in the current fiscal year in addition to what was originally proposed in the mains for this fiscal year. I’m wondering if the Minister will provide an accounting for how that $1.25 million was expended.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

Yes, we’ll provide the comparable breakdown on the early childhood $7.7 million. We do have the $1.25 million that was committed the last go around. The breakdown itself, we can provide that to the Members as well. The first one is the ECE framework renewal. That’s what we’re going through right now, and also part of that will be coordination with the Northwest Territories different agencies and stakeholders and so forth. Child and family resource centre is another one for $250,000 for two communities, Tulita and Ndilo.

First, if I can reflect back. The framework renewal is slated for $200,000, the child and family resource centre is $250,000, and the early childhood community outreach. That’s another one, the public awareness, $670,000, we’re already advertising, call in, print and so forth. It’s got a list of activities on that page, as well, that we can provide to the Members.

Another one is Early Childhood diploma program through Aurora College, Early Learning Idea Program, zero to three years, $50,000. Also, the last one is the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Inspection Manual and training, which we are working on producing handbooks, for $80,000. That’s just the breakdown that we have before us.

Thanks to the Minister for that breakdown. I have some of that information. What I would be interested in, in particular, is how the expenditures have varied from what was planned at the beginning of the fiscal year, so I would appreciate that. I know the Minister made a commitment to have a fully qualified – which I assume means meeting the federal standards – early childhood worker employed at each of the two child and family resource centres. Could I just confirm that those fully qualified people are employed in those programs as per that commitment?

The $250,000 would offset the cost of those qualified people within that establishment. That was part of the plan, so we are working closely with both communities, Tulita and Ndilo, that have been slated for the $250,000.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. A final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m happy to get on the list again. I didn’t hear the Minister say that that commitment had been fulfilled, that we have actually two fully qualified early childhood

development workers looking after children in these communities. Could I still get that confirmed? Thank you.

I’m not sure if we have that detailed information here but we are working with those two establishments, because part of the commitment that was made was to have qualified people within the framework. At this point, I don’t think we have that detailed information but I can provide that to the Member, where the status is at, if they hired those qualified people. We can provide that information. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Bromley, I will put you back on the list here. We are on questionings on 10-17. I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up for my first questions on Mr. Bromley’s questions with regard to the funding for Early Childhood Development.

I noted in the Minister’s opening remarks he stated, in 2013-14 the department plans to spend $7.7 million, about $1.4 million more than budgeted in the 2012-13 Main Estimates. I thought about that. The main estimates were amended, I believe, when committee added $1.25 million to the main estimates. I would like clarification. If we have $1.4 million more than the 2012-13 Main Estimates in this budget, the 2013-14 budget, how much of that $1.4 million is new if we had $1.5 million that was added already after the fact to the mains? Am I correct that our newness is $15,000 give or take? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Devitt.