My question was: What significant improvements are there? We still didn’t hear what they were. Can the Minister clearly assure the public, does the department have corrective actions and plans for daycare facilities which were found to have blocked fire exits, uncovered electrical outlets and chemicals within reach of small children? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

All these inspections are completed, and if there were any deficiencies found during the inspections, they were followed through with by early childhood consultants who are in regular contact with the contractor and also in communication with the licenced operators.

We’re doing what we can to work with the operators so there’s a safe environment for our children in care, and also my department is working very closely with the regional health inspectors, as well, and not only that but the fire inspectors to ensure compliance with all the regional centres and the community centres as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. “Doing what we can” seems to be a common response these days. The governments of Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia provide online links to daycare inspection status reports or the reports themselves. Clearly, ATIPP is not a barrier to this transparency.

But to the question, will this Minister follow suit and make daycare inspection reports freely and publicly available? Thank you.

Since that information came to light in my department, we have been working very closely on ways to share relevant inspection information in a format that allows parents to make informed decisions on child care while, at the same time, protecting the privacy of child care staff. My department is also committed to making inspection information available to the public, and this will be available starting 2015-16. We’re making improvements within our department and we’re moving forward on that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is one of the national awards that have been recognized throughout the Northwest Territories, and I’ve been trying to get some more information on that since the Member addressed that information to me. We are doing what we can as a department to recognize those talented individuals or organizations in the Northwest Territories. We’re working with those organizations to make some sort of recognition and even go further beyond that. Mahsi.

I mentioned that the East Three gardening program in Inuvik is doing some great work and they want to do some more innovative thinking in terms of how they’re going to grow veggies and create produce for lunch programs in Inuvik. I want to ask the Minister if he’s familiar with that program, have talks with the East Three staff and look at how they can support them so they can purchase these materials and continue to build on their national successes that’s been recognized so we can help them and support them in getting the materials that they need to continue with this program and the successes that they’ve shown.

Obviously, ECE supports healthy foods in our school system. The growing program, obviously, we’ve heard just recently, as well, and we believe and support innovative thinking. How can we have those vegetables in our school system as possibly part of our lunch program? So, we’re open to those ideas. I have to work with the local DEAs and DECs, if they’re acceptable to that initiative. I need to sit down with my counterparts and see where we can go from there, but this is a brilliant idea that we should carry forward.

This program has helped students engage. It’s helped with attendance. It’s given them nutrition so that they can excel in school work. They’ve got a really great program that I don’t think has to be reinvented, and it’s something that’s unique and brought forth from the local people and is something that can be forwarded to the schools.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d be willing to work with the staff who developed this program and take it out to the regions and to the schools so they can develop their own programs and have the success that Inuvik has shown and has been recognized nationally. Will he be working with the schools to create some type of framework that they can take into the schools, as well, and help other schools in the success of attendance, healthy eating and education?

When we talk about healthy foods, obviously we provide funding towards this initiative as well. Approximately $650,000 we distribute on an annual basis for healthy eating programming in the Northwest Territories. We give the funding directly to the

schools, so it’s part of their initiative. There is already funding in place. My department will be working with the organization on how can we best move this forward as well. We have to keep in mind that we have to deal with all the schools across the Northwest Territories as well. Then again, there is funding in place already, and we will continue to more forward working with the school boards.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I ask the Minister whether or not he would review the funding policy in terms of this healthy nutrition program so that students in regions that have a higher population will get more funding so that they can feed a higher percentage of the population in the school? Will he review that based on population size?

As I indicated earlier, we’re open to some ideas on how we can generate funding, based, obviously, on students. Currently, it’s based on students. Those are discussions that we need to have with the local organizations and also the DECs and DEAs as well.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement from earlier today with questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

The grain harvesting practices throughout North America have been a windfall for the snow goose. As we’ve heard, large amounts of waste grain left in fields after harvest has made them fatter, enabling them to survive better and lay more eggs when returning to Arctic nesting grounds. This has caused overpopulations to where hunting can no longer control them and habitat destruction for all wildlife including caribou is the result.

I’m wondering what plans the Minister has to address this growing snow goose overpopulation disaster.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are no imminent plans at this point. I have listened to the Member’s statement with interest and I will be following up with the department.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that follow-up. As I mentioned, this issue was highlighted 20 years ago. I know the Minister is about as long in the tooth as I am with this

department. With an NWT proposal to address this issue and benefit our people at that time, yet almost every province and state in concert with their federal government have recognized both opportunities and need and acted to try and address this issue, we, who are holding the solution in our hands, have done nothing.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he has any ideas why, given the clear benefits, the many opportunities for our people and the likelihood of international financial support to implement the simple actions required, again, why have we done nothing?

I think the key question, of course is, is there something we can do? The Member has raised a good issue. I’ve been Environment Minister now for quite a number of years and I must confess this is not one of the issues that has been high on the priority list that I’ve been aware of. Now that it’s been raised and the Member has provided the history, I will restate my commitment to go back to the department and see what options there are to try to address this issue and look at some of the suggestions and advice provided by the Member.

Again, I appreciate the Minister’s commitment and I am happy to work with him on that to provide any background and resources there. There is clear opportunity for northern benefits here, as I mentioned, including halting the habitat destruction, providing modest local employment in a remote community that has need of that and addressing the issues of high cost of living and food security in many of our communities that are in most desperate need.

I’m asking the Minister one last time, in his considerations, will he commit to providing committee with a full accounting of the cost and benefits of the management action called for today?

Yes, I will report back to committee on the results of the discussion with the department. I will make sure we go back and look at the documents the Member has referred, and we’ll look to what we think is possible and share that with committee. We will be happy, of course, to appear before committee to have a further, more detailed discussion.