Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. The Early Child Worker Grant Program, the budget increase obviously represents additional funding for early childhood learning and the child care worker. This is just an area that has been initiated already and part of the initiation that we need to develop to identify those individuals that are working in early childhood who are one of the lowest paid in the Northwest Territories, and we want to increase their incentive. That’s where it’s at, the $391,000 that we’re looking at right now.

I heard the Minister say that it’s grants for early childhood learning and child care workers. I see that written in text on the bottom of the page. Who is getting these grants? Are they going to daycare operators? Is this the money that is going to early childhood educators as a top-up in their wages? Is this the scholarship grants? I would like to know what the extra $400,000 is being used for.

The funding that we’ve identified for these early childhood workers, the funding goes directly to the staff, so there is no implication on their employers. Yes, it is going directly to the staff.

So $400,000 is earmarked in this next budget year for wage top-ups? Is that correct?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Lovely.

That then makes me ask what the $500,000 in this budget year, in the ’14-15 budget year is being used for. Is that also for wage top-up? Did that program start in this year or is that for something different?

Thanks to Mr. Lovely. My other question here has to do with the early childhood program, and it’s gone down about $700,000.

Could I get an explanation as to why that’s reduced so much and is that $700,000 added in someplace else?

These contributions are for early learning and child care programs, family day homes and family literacy programs. So are these the operations grants that daycare and day home operators get? I’ll start with that. Thanks.

It boggles my mind. I don’t think I’ve heard of any of these except maybe the scholarship program. It makes me wonder why we have a trust fund. But I’ll accept that explanation as it is.

I have a question with regards to the Healthy Food for Children and Youth. I’m glad to see this is in here. I think it’s a program that started in this budget year and is carrying on next year. It states that its contributions to the schools for the purchase of healthy and nutritious food. One of the things that I hear quite regularly is that it’s all well and good to provide funding for food to schools, but it requires somebody to basically order the food, get the food, look after the food, cut up the food, provide the food to the kids, clean up afterwards, et cetera. That job usually falls on teachers. It’s just one more thing that gets added on to the job that they have to do during the day.

My question to this particular funding is whether or not any of this funding to schools for this program is eligible for them to hire somebody from the community to be a coordinator or to run the program for them. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Ms. Eggenhofer.

Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Education and culture, grants, contributions and transfers, total grants and contributions, $209.153 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, I know he’s been a great supporter of the Dechinta teaching and learning institution. Does that show up on this page under grants and contributions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. That’s correct. It is part of the grants and contributions. Mahsi.

I know the Minister is aware of their work to seek to expand their programs based on the tremendous success they’ve enjoyed. I know the Minister’s heard those statements and questions in the House and so on. Is there a plan to increase the funding for Dechinta in this budget?

Madam Chair, as I stated in the House, we are working with the Dechinta stakeholders. Obviously, we need a proposal from Dechinta to move forward on as part of their business case scenario. We haven’t received that at this point yet. Again, I have to work with the college across the Northwest Territories as well. It is a process that we have to follow. We’ve been in touch with Dechinta and vice versa. We’re working with them. Mahsi.

I can confirm that I’ve heard the same thing from Dechinta. They really appreciate the Minister’s support. I think it’s been critical for their work to date. They’re very anxious to move onwards and work with the Minister for that extra support.

In fact, I’d say Dechinta has proven itself to be cost effective. The students love it and First Nations support it. It can support local economies, and of course, Dechinta supports the communities it works out of. Everyone associated with the Dechinta model wins.

But GNWT recognition of them as an accredited educational institution and financial support is now critical to building on the demonstrated success that they have achieved and to provide for the expansions to the regions that we’ve just spoken of. There’s a high regional demand, I think, as the Minister knows. Students are from all over, but they’re demanding their own programs in their own region. There’s a desire by Dechinta to meet those interests.

With support, every regional program will provide six full-time and 32 part-time positions in each region for elders and local residents and provide strong support, as mentioned, for community economies. The interesting thing about the

Dechinta model is that there’s no need for costly infrastructure. Dechinta, in fact, is a model that supports existing private infrastructure such as lodges and camps that we know from time to time go through financial bottlenecks, so it’s a beautiful merging of interests in a way that serves our communities.

The Dechinta, I know the Minister is aware, is five years old now. Their five-year pilot is coming to an end. It’s now time, of course, to move to an operational basis. During that time they’ve enjoyed the success of 250-plus course graduates, all of which have become either employed or gone on to additional post-secondary education. The students universally praise the program. There’s a strong record of progressively engaging students on northern issues, keeping the northern graduates in the North because of that engagement and, in fact, repatriating students that have left the North and moved south. I have a constituent who has just returned and wrote me a letter saying that the Dechinta programs were so instrumental in her doing that.

In my region where they exist right now, there’s strong support by First Nation governments like the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. They, of course, have partnered very progressively right from day one with the University of Alberta and McGill University for university-accredited courses and they are now, this year, working on a master’s level course.

I know that the Minister is also aware, from statements in the House and so on from my colleagues, that applications have soared beyond the 30 spaces that are available now and I believe there were 97 applications as of some weeks ago to date so far this year.

Again, I know the department has been supportive and is appreciated by Dechinta. They say they have a very good working relationship with the Minister’s staff. They also have other major funders in McConnell Foundation, Counselling Foundation of Canada and Tides Foundation. However, there are limits to what they can without being incorporated in the GNWT fold of accredited educational institutions.

Since 2008 Dechinta has brought millions of dollars in education and research funding into the NWT, but they have a dilemma. They cannot grant degrees without legislated recognition by ECE. As a consequence, they cannot hold grants that they successfully have competed for and therefore the grants must be held by southern degree-granting institutions. Being recognized, of course, would also attract considerably more foundation money that they’re able to achieve right now under these limitations, enable them to carry their own grants instead of having to funnel them through another southern institution and pay admin fees down there,

employ people down there and so on and enable them, of course, to grant Dechinta/U of A or McGill degrees in concert as Yukon College does with the University of Alberta.

All of this is a long way of saying they are now at a critical juncture, the end of a very impressive five- year pilot study, pilot project where they have tested things. They have developed a very unique model and they are set to go and have a very keen bunch of students in regions who are interested in those programs that also bring a lot of employment along with the program. I know the Minister is aware that they work hard to make sure it’s a land-based program that draws on the elders’ knowledge and gives them professor status, rightfully so, in the delivery of their programs as well as the academic side.

I appreciate that the Minister is waiting for a proposal from Dechinta and that he has appreciated their work and is standing ready to consider that proposal seriously. At this point in time, I would like to propose a motion to support the Minister in another aspect of this, and that is the aspect of getting them recognized. Madam Chair, may I go ahead with the motion?

Yes, we may have a timing issue here as we are obligated to recognize the clock in about three minutes. I don’t know how many Members want to speak to this. I don’t know how far beyond the six o’clock it would go if we introduce the motion now. Do the motion now? Is that the wish of the committee?