Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we will be reviewing the policies I do know that, being the education Minister before and actually operating daycares before, is that the policies for a licensed daycare facility are a lot more stringent than for a licensed home provider. There are start-up fees within Education, Culture and Employment to assist daycare providers to not only have access to funding but also to support so that they can actually ensure that they are successful in becoming a licensed home daycare provider. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you Thank you, Madam Premier. Further questions, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes?

Thank you, Madam Premier, for that. I know just in my region alone that there is one early childhood, I am not really sure of what their position was, and I know it just recently became vacant. My community could keep that person busy, does keep that person busy, and they do have to travel to the communities. I am just wondering: with that position, I don't know if it is in all regions, the early childhood, it is under ECE. It's in the department. If they could do more education as soon as this kind of goes live with housing and doing that partnership to say, you know, if you do this, there is money here, just that communication that we are really bad at, this government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will let the Education, Culture and Employment Minister answer that because he has taken over from my old position. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The position is early childhood consultant, and there is one in each region, and they do work very closely with any childcare providers or potential childcare providers. So, this information, I guarantee will make it to the people who it needs to make it to because that is what these people do, and they have very good relationships in every region with all of the providers, and they are mandated to develop those relationships if they just come into the position new. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Further questions? No further questions from Inuvik Twin Lakes. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple of questions, my first being in regard to after-school care. After-school care is a form of childcare, and, within the Northwest Territories, the ratio for adults to children for after-school care is different from the ratio for pupils to teachers, but a lot of times our after-school care takes place in our schools, and so a student could walk out to their locker, get a snack, their teacher leaves the classroom, a childcare provider enters the classroom, and all of a sudden you are only allowed to have half as many students in that room. So I am wondering if we are prepared to also make this part of the conversation, the ratio for kids to childcare providers for after-school care within our school facilities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you. I can assure the Member that this is part of the conversation. I have had those conversations, if we look at creating more, using perhaps some of the spaces available in some government infrastructure buildings, like schools. A lot of schools are under-capacity, and they have a lot of room. Perhaps some spaces like that could be repurposed for childcare. So, if there is a childcare centre in the school and there are adults in the school, perhaps that ratio is something that can be looked at. In terms of after-school care, if you have all of the adults who would be assisting a classroom, you know, the principal could come in, other teachers could come in, support assistants could come into a classroom. If they are all gone, then that ratio becomes more important because, if there are only the employees of the after-school program and no other adults in the vicinity who could come in to help out, that becomes a concern. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.

All right, thank you, Madam Chair. I am definitely game to continue having more conversations about this with the Minister of Education. Another concern of mine has to do with the same type of thing, and that is after-school care again in schools, and that is around the rules. I get that it's a safety concern, but, if a child is sitting in a classroom playing with blocks and there is an outlet on the wall that is open, as soon as that becomes an after-school care facility, my understanding is the rules change and all of a sudden those outlets need to be covered, but the students did not touch the outlets during the day when they were with their teacher; the odds of them touching the outlet all of a sudden after 4:00 -- so I am wondering if the Minister is also willing to have discussion about those types of rules that would make sense in a daycare setting, but, when the students are in a school for after-school care purposes and the safety of the students is paramount during the day when the teacher is there and the standards are paramount when the teacher is there, why that changes after school, I'm unaware of, and so I am wondering if we can also add that to the discussion of things we could potentially change, as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I am happy to look at all of those kind of things. Earlier in the mandate, it does not fall in my department, but we talked about reducing red tape, and sometimes there are regulations that need to be re-examined. Safety is always going to be paramount. There are no two ways about that, and I think everyone is going to agree, but, if a rule just exists to exist, it's something we need to reconsider, perhaps. I promise to look into all of those kinds of issues, and I am happy to sit with the Member and hear about any more of these types of issues she has because, clearly, she has put some thought into it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My last question: so our priority here is "advance universal childcare by increasing availability," so we have definitely discussed that. The last part of that sentence is "and affordability," so I am wondering if the Premier can speak a little bit to how my constituents are actually going to feel that childcare is more affordable with these types of changes. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The reality is that we have 22 priorities, and we have said that, when we made those 22 priorities, we did not have all of the information. We did not. We made the information on the information we had, but we did not have all of the information at the time. So, I have said it over and over: we are not going to have enough money to meet everything. We know that. However, for me, and I am making a judgment call here, the availability of childcare versus the affordability, and affordability needs to be taken into consideration, but universal childcare versus available childcare, my priority is having childcare in communities. When we talk about affordability, Madam Chair, higher-income families usually do not need to have subsidies. The lower-income families all qualify for childcare subsidies, so not only do we subsidize the daycare providers between I think it's $15-something to $45 a day, depending on the needs of the child, we also will provide subsidies to parents who are low income and need that extra support. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. The Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question for the Premier has to do with the commitment to better utilize GNWT infrastructure for early childhood program space. Can the Premier tell us what she has in mind with this commitment? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Some places in these mandates spill me all over the place. This is where we are looking at a hub model. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment had talked about using schools, new school builds. If we are going to be doing school builds or if there are schools that have rooms, why aren't we using them? This will not only deal with, in my opinion, the availability of childcare; it will also hopefully deal with the trauma that comes from people who experience residential school syndrome. We have a lot of children who aren't attending school because of fear from parents, fear of what the school system is, so, if we start early and we have their daycare programs, their parenting programs, maybe their immunization shots in the schools, we are hoping that will kind of socialize the families so that the schools aren't seen as a bad thing anymore, actually turns into a positive way of looking at it.

The other thing too is, looking at buildings that we have, there are a lot of buildings that we say we do not need anymore, as the government. Maybe we need to, instead of just saying we are going to put them out there or rip them down, start looking at it and saying: is there a way we can use this space; can we use that building and offer it to an NGO so that they can offer a childcare program or a parenting program or whatever it may be? So it goes right across from new builds with schools to current infrastructure that we currently have and how can we best use that space to meet the needs of children and families. Thank you, Madam Chair.