Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Can we expect this material information to come to our side prior to the next session? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I think Members opposite could expect that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Actually, Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to seek unanimous consent, if there are no further questions, to go back to item 5 in the orders of the day, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent denied

Oral questions, Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a recent report by Statistics Canada has shown that the gender gap between a man's earnings and a woman's earnings has shrunk by $0.10 since 1981. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the Status of Women what response this government has to shrinking that gap even further here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Masi. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has done a few things, actually, to address the wage disparity between males and females. It was the last Assembly that actually increased the minimum wage. I hate to say that, but the majority of people making minimum wage happened to be women in society, so we have addressed that by slowly increasing that. I did hear from the Minister the other day as well that they were looking at more increases to that.

The other thing they have done is, many, many years ago, the Government of the Northwest Territories did a gender equity pay throughout all of the employees of the Government of the Northwest Territories to ensure that women who are working for the government actually are paid the same as males. Equal work for equal pay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Those are concrete steps. I know this is a complicated topic. Another issue is that Canadian women are less likely to be employed. Nearly 10 per cent are less employed than men and are four times are more likely to work part-time compared to men. Often, this is due to child care. Does the Minister have any suggestions or proposals that this government will do to improve access to affordable child care in the Northwest Territories?

Child care is a huge issue for women throughout the Northwest Territories, throughout Canada, and internationally, actually as a barrier to accessing employment and other opportunities as well, but employment is what we speak about today here. To address some of that, the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment did do an increase to the child care subsidies that day cares are getting. He did a reformatting of their formula funding to address that. I am and always will continue to be a strong lobby for child care.

We’ve talked about universal child care for the Northwest Territories. There was a study done on this. Does the Minister support universal child care as a potential project or policy for this government to take on and will she access the feasibility of that in the life of this government?

The Government of the Northwest Territories does recognize universal child care as a very proactive option to address the obstacles, one of the obstacles, for women entering employment. As such, the Minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is looking at universal child care as an option and seeing if it can be realized within our government.

Masi. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some analysts have taken a look at these, the most recent statistics, and seen that improving women’s participation in the labour force might actually offset some declines. This could be an economic drive for getting more women into the work force. Will the Minister commit to applying that kind of gender-based analysis to things like Skills 4 Success and other government initiatives in her role of Minister for the Status of Women so we can start to see those benefits roll out in across the government approach to empowering women in the Northwest Territories across government portfolios? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Gender-based analysis, gender-based plus analysis, is critical to looking at all policies and procedures that impact. One policy does not apply equally to every situation and every person, so it is important to look within that lens to actually see how different programs, different policies affect individuals, women, people of disabilities, etc.

Yes, we are currently in the process of working with the Northwest Territories Status of Women to look at how we can start to implement gender plus based analysis within the government policies.

Masi. Oral questions. Item 8, written questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll try again to request unanimous consent to go back to Item 5 in the orders of the day, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

You may proceed. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I always envisioned that my first nay was going to be in opposition of a hot button issue, and it turns out it was to go back to recognition of visitors in the gallery. It’s all good all the time.

Mr. Speaker, I got caught up in the emotion of my Member’s statement today and all the action going around introducing all the visitors in the gallery. I have to apologize. I didn’t take the opportunity to recognize and welcome to the house today, the executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, Deneen Everett, and the president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, Renee Comeau. I just want to take this opportunity to welcome them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Ms. Deneen Everett and Ms. Renee Comeau from the Yellowknife Chamber. I think we’ve been talking a lot about women and leadership in the Northwest Territories on the occasion of International Women’s Day. This is the perfect example of strong women leadership in our business community whose advocacy is tireless and a huge benefit to the residents of the Northwest Territories and to Yellowknife. Thank you.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize the manager of the Yellowknife Airport and a constituent of Yellowknife South, Lee Stroman. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to Commissioner’s opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. The honourable Premier.