Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, am in support of this motion. It’s been mentioned by a number of people. I think it’s also been mentioned by the Minister, but there is a big need in the territory for daycares, for new daycares. The Minister talked about junior kindergarten and in the same breath mentioned daycare. I know he recognizes that there is a need. We have some daycares, particularly in Yellowknife. We have existing daycares. I have spoken before about the impact that I think junior kindergarten will have on the profitability for the daycares in the city that exists.

We need to provide an increase in funding to existing daycares. One of the things that has not changed in many years, from what I understand, is the daily subsidy per child. The motion asks about assisting supporting existing daycare facilities. I think that is something that the department needs to look at. What is the daily subsidy? What is it going to need to be to support daycares to be profitable once junior kindergarten starts? It definitely is a different scenario when you have zero to three instead of zero to four. I certainly don’t want to see existing daycares fold. We have so few spaces now in the city of Yellowknife, for instance, that we cannot stand to lose any more daycares than we have already lost. In the small communities, we need to put money into creating daycares where possible. Certainly there needs to be community support. There has to be some sort of an initiative on the part of the community or the part of someone in the community to start a business, if that is what it is, but they need the assistance to get that started. That is what this motion asks for. Thank you, Mr. Chair.