Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support this motion as amended. In December of last year on the first day that I spoke in this Chamber I spoke about junior kindergarten, emphasizing that our entire education system from JK to grade 12 must be adequately funded. We know that the availability of early childhood programs like junior kindergarten is free of charge, is essential to Northern families, and we know too that developing options for free play-based care for four-year-olds is part of the government's mandate.
We know that the work of junior kindergarten implementation must be done to best serve future generations of Northerners. However, like many of my colleagues, I do not believe that this programming should come at the expense of choices for families or that diverse array of options currently available in various communities should be flattened to make way for a single program.
Regular Members have considered the matter of junior kindergarten carefully over the past several months, but these concerns have not necessarily been alleviated. On top of my own reservations, some residents of the Yellowknife North riding have also reached out to me to express their concerns. They are worried that if junior kindergarten proceeds as planned other day homes, daycares and preschool programs and the children who use them may suffer. They are not convinced that ECE has undertaken sufficient consultation or that the potential impacts on other care providers have been fully considered and accounted for.
As we have heard here today, I know too that my colleagues have heard similar concerns in their own communities; concerns that this one-size-fits-all approach may be a detriment not a service to the children it is meant to serve. With this is in mind, I thank my colleagues for bringing this motion forward and I look forward to seeing it passed today as amended. Those are my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.