Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Member, again. Tsiigehtchic is a good example of how we tried to go in there. The attendance was low, but it wasn't ECE that pulled the funding. It was a decision by the community. We're more than willing to go back in and reinstate the funding, but it's sustainability of programs. That's why I'm saying that we need to start looking outside the box. We need to look at different solutions, because right now we base it on head count, between $15-something a day up to $49 a day for children. $49 a day, $50 a day, is a pretty good supplement, and then parents do that on top. So it's a matter of equity. If we do that in Yellowknife, with the regional centres, and we pay $50 a day in Tsiigehtchic and they only have one child, that $50 a day might not make that person want to stay there, especially if the parent doesn't want to pay anything, which I've seen in some communities that they don't want to pay any money.
In the regional centres, especially Yellowknife, they're more used to it. A parent knows that, when they go to daycare, they have to pay up to $1,000 a month. That's an expectation, but the smaller communities aren't always on that. So, like I had said before, we need to be flexible. We need to look outside the box. I'm not willing to be unfair and say, okay, we'll pay 100 percent in one community and we'll only supplement another community, because that's not being equitable, but working with the communities closely and seeing how we can address their needs, and I'll go back to Enterprise, because it was brought up by MLA Green, Enterprise is one of the communities that had an issue. They thought outside the box. So when I was there, actually, they were saying that the smaller children, because it was Aboriginal Head Start versus JK, and that's how we started the conversation, so they said they were worried about Aboriginal Head Start being sustainable with the introduction of JK. We gave funding to the school for JK. The kids enroled, and then they didn't want to be in JK. Those children decided to go to Aboriginal Head start, so our JK there is empty.
What I did like about the Aboriginal Head Start, and that's thinking out of the box, is that a wonderful woman said that, "We take the younger children, too." So their Aboriginal Head Start is not defined by the parameters of the program; they've actually been flexible, and I think that's what I say, is that we need to look at each community individually and see how we can work to support those children. Does Enterprise now need a licensed daycare centre? Probably not. If they're numbers for Aboriginal Head Start are not full, like my understanding is, if they're accommodating the younger children, then why wouldn't we support that kind of programming?
Again, it's thinking outside the box. Each community is different, and we need to look at those communities, making sure that we have a lens that is equal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.