Thank you, Mr. Chair. Daycare affordability is a major issue for working families in the Northwest Territories, as I just said. It's usually the largest expense after accommodation. Funding for childcare comes primarily from the fees that parents pay. Just 20 per cent of childcare costs come from public funding in the NWT, one of the lowest levels in the developed world and less than one per cent of our budget. In the academic study of the feasibility of providing universal daycare in the NWT, the authors make the following recommendations about grants to daycare operators. I'm going to quote from that report:
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If a daycare centre was positioned to apply for every grant, it would involve nine different application processes for relatively small amounts. Growing childcare in the NWT requires a more stable funding base and a less burdensome grant process. Consolidating the program contribution, rent/mortgage contribution, and staff grant program would refocus operational funding into a single payment stream to programs. The Small Communities Initiative Fund could also be rolled into the consolidated grant, providing predictable funding for programs in remote communities. Multi-year grants would allow for program planning and reduce the administrative burden. Rather than allocating consolidated grant payments on spaces or enrolment, which is the way it's done now, payments should be based on legislated staffing levels, which are the major recurring non-flexible costs in daycare. To ensure funding improves staff wages, regional wage grids would provide transparency to staff and accountability to the public, and allow for differences in living costs. Tying payment levels to staff credentials and a wage grid would encourage capacity in the work force. Consolidated grant payments could be paid quarterly or as deemed appropriate in consultation with operators. The above approaches are funding-neutral. In other words, they can be implemented without additional funds. They address deliverables in the action plan, including reducing the administrative workload and promoting program stability by providing predictable funding. At the same time, they address wage levels, which impact the ability of programs to recruit and retain trained staff. Ultimately they provide the coherent base necessary if the NWT is to grow funding to expand early childhood education access and improve program quality.”
What I want to emphasize here is that what is strangling our daycares now is this unpredictable and cumbersome granting structure, which is based on whether children are there and so varies from day to day, since young children are often ill. It strangles the daycare providers by not allowing them a predictable and stable source of funding, which is why my colleagues have been talking about daycares closing in a number of communities. Usually, these operations are very thin in a financial way, where they cannot carry the program for months on end where the enrolment in the childcare facility is fluctuating. I would therefore urge everyone to vote in favour of this motion that will address these chronic problems in operating daycares in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.