This is page numbers 5453 - 5490 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was assembly. View the webstream of the day's session.

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Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to welcome the following people from the Foster Family Coalition who are with us here today: Dawn Pottinger, who is the president; Tammy Roberts, the executive director, Korry Garvey; Meagan McDougall; and Pat Gallagher. Thanks for all you do.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Thank you. Member for Hay River North.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to welcome Max and Julia Trennert to the gallery. It's always nice to have people from Hay River here, especially when we're up here for so long. It really makes it feel like home, so welcome.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Member for Range Lake.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to once again recognize a constituent, a Page of ours from Range Lake, Brooke Vallis, and, of course, all the other Pages who have done a fantastic job. I really want to pick out Brooke because, even though it's the second time I've recognized her, as the Minister of the Status of Women, I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a long-time look at what you can be when you decide. This is a viable career that I'd like you for you to consider, as well, entering politics. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Almost a Member's statement. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, want to take this opportunity to recognize a man of many hats and titles, Yellowknife North constituent, Mr. Tony Whitford. Thank you for being here today.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we've missed anyone in the gallery, thanks for being here with us. It's always great to have an audience as part of our proceedings. Masi. Item 6, acknowledgments. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister responsible for WSCC. In the NWT, in Nunavut, the total number of people employed is around 35,000. About a third of those people work for a territorial government or public entity, but those employers only pay one-sixth of all of the revenue WSCC collects from employers. The rest comes from industry, small business, and municipalities, which last year generated $55 million in revenue to WSCC. In turn, WSCC paid out $34.5 million in claims to employees from those organizations. That's a difference of $20 million. I'd just like to ask the Minister: what happens with that $20 million? Where does it go? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On any given year, you never know what kind of claims you're going to get in within workers' claims. We want to promote workplace health and safety, of course, both here in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Last fall, in 2018, we did develop a 2019 corporate plan, and that was through the governance council which approves the operations and capital budgets on an annual basis. As I said, we don't know what kind of claims we will be getting on a yearly basis. For more detail, I will have to go back to the WSCC and get that information for the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

I appreciate that. I didn't give the Minister enough heads-up on this. I've got some technical questions here, so maybe I'll just jump to a different question. The Minister mentioned this last time when he discussed this issue, that, in 1993, the OH&S function of government was transferred to WSCC. At that time, not only did government save money by transferring this function to WSCC, the government also has what appears to be preferential rates from WSCC, and it has deep pockets. If it's not compliant, it can usually handle any monetary penalty by throwing some taxpayer money at it. It never has to worry about going out of business, generating revenue, or any of that kind of stuff. I don't like wasting people's time, and I don't like creating plans for the sake of plans, but I would really like to see WSCC put forward a plan to shift these OH&S costs off the backs of private industry and back onto government. This wouldn't necessarily mean GNWT employees would be performing these OH&S duties. It would probably be easier to just adjust the rates for government, but I'll leave those details to the experts. Can the Minister commit to working with WSCC to develop such a plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I had mentioned, the governance council does approve the budget on an annual basis. They develop a strategic and a corporate plan. Moving forward under this corporate plan, they are focusing on increasing the number of employers with an occupational health and safety program, as well as increasing occupational health and safety education in communities for vulnerable workers. As much as the Member wants to move forward with private industry, we also have to make sure that anybody who does business in the Northwest Territories is also held accountable for the health and safety of our residents and our people in our communities. I did table a document in oral questions earlier during this sitting, and I have committed to informing the governance council of the industry's concerns regarding the rate structure. I do believe that the governance council has recently met, and they have also agreed to review both the rates and the subclasses that were mentioned in questions that were asked earlier on in this sitting. I will stay by that commitment, and I will keep Members who were concerned regarding this apprised moving forward.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not suggesting that we reduce safety in the territory. Everyone is all for safety. The other question I had was: what portion of WSCC's budget is spent on occupational health and safety responsibilities? I understand the Minister doesn't have that information. I was just wondering for a final question: would the Minister be able to commit to answering the questions I've provided in some sort of written form that I can then share with my constituents who have been raising these concerns with me? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I had mentioned, we do have a corporate plan that's out there. It's done on an annual basis. There is a budget breakdown within this corporate plan, but, for the specifics on the OH&S, I will have to get back to the Member, and I will commit to providing that in a written document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of us Members today have spoken about the lack of daycare space and the need for capital investment in daycare infrastructure. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, adequate space for childcare has been an ongoing concern for some time. We all know that. I would like to ask the Minister: does the department believe that the public or market is responsible for delivering the necessary space to house daycares and that entrepreneurs, NGOs, or parents should be solely responsible for the capital investment for these facilities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that, within the Government of the Northwest Territories, we do try not to disturb market communities where there is a viable opportunity to make money. Why would the government be doing that when private individuals could be making that? I adhere to that policy. I agree with it. However, when it comes to daycares, daycares are very expensive. It is difficult to operate them. My own experience operating a daycare for many years previously, we just scraped by. So I think that the government does have a responsibility at this point, and we are trying to help. When daycares start up, there is $25,000 for a start-up fee that they can get. They can get $10,000 for health and safety monies. If they are looking at expanding their daycares, they can get money for that. We subsidize a daily rate for every daycare; every licensed daycare provider gets daily rates ranging between per part-time/full-time $19.81 a day to up to $49.56 per day per child in communities. So we are subsidizing the daycares directly. We are subsidizing the licensed daycare staff. There is a subsidy that we give, a staff grant, on a quarterly basis to every employee that is in a licensed daycare. So, although it is not everything and we are not providing a hundred percent, we are trying our best to actually support daycares, as well, through our programs.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you to the Minister for her reply. There is no denying that everybody is very appreciative of the department's support through their programs and subsidies for daycare and childcare. That is very much appreciated. The Minister talked about market communities, but we also have non-market communities. In particular, as the honourable Member from Yellowknife Centre mentioned earlier, we have 11 communities that have no childcare whatsoever. So I would like to ask the Minister: how is the Minister attracting investment in childcare centres in the 11 communities without childcare services?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Eleven communities not having any daycare services, it identifies a problem. It is a bigger problem than that. Many communities, not only do they not have daycares, they don't have any early childhood development support whatsoever. I have said over and over in the House how important it is to have supports for parents and for children. Not all parents have babies and know how to take care of them. I, myself, with my first child, didn't even know how to bathe my baby. We need supports for parents. The 11 communities, however, Mr. Speaker, the majority are smaller communities. The number of children who would be accessing those programs, a licensed daycare centre would not be financially viable for the community to do, so we are really trying to advocate for licensed family daycare homes. Small communities are very community-focused. I have said that many times. We know that there are qualified people who have the right attitude and stuff. We are going to try to support them with the skills. We are actively trying to get people within those communities to provide support. If it can't be a licensed childcare centre, then we are trying to get licensed day homes. Come to us if I can put anything out in the public. Come to us if you are even interested. We will walk you through it. We will help you with the applications. We need to support our children as best as possible.

Question 698-18(3): Day Care Infrastructure Investments
Oral Questions

March 14th, 2019

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Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Again, thank you to the Minister. It sounds like there might be some hope as it relates to possibly starting up at least some daycare homes in some of the communities that have no childcare whatsoever at this time. I would like to mention that this government has been asked in the past to support universal childcare, and, essentially, it has rejected the idea due to the projected annual costs, However, investment in childcare facilities could arguably be a better long-term commitment to the challenges facing adequate childcare, so I would like to ask the Minister: will the Minister make a commitment to bring a department plan forward to her Cabinet colleagues or to FMB to support additional or new funding for critical daycare infrastructure?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Absolutely. One of the mandate commitments actually within this 18th Legislative Assembly developed by all Members, I have to give credit to all everyone, was to develop a plan for accessible daycare, so I have the full intention to fulfill that commitment. It is a commitment not only that I, as the Minister, but also on a personal level, that I think is important, and, at that point, once we have a plan, I am hoping that all Members will support the plan as we move forward.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.