Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I've heard very good things from my constituents about the revamp to the Transitional Rent Supplement Program. They've had positive interactions with Housing Corporation staff, and they're grateful for the support to make their housing more affordable. I think the biggest challenge here is finding some bridging that will go from the end of August, when the current program is expected to expire, until the end of March next year, when the Canadian Housing Benefit will be introduced. I want to commend the Housing Corporation for good work on this and ask them to look internally to find the resources necessary to continue this program until the Canada program kicks in at the beginning of the next fiscal year. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.

--- Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories advance universal childcare by maintaining the additional funding provided during the pandemic to support operational, cleaning costs, employee wage subsidies and food security issues anticipated to be more severe post-COVID. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that most of us are aware that the best thing that we can do for our children is have them in licensed childcare. It promotes their personal development and their school readiness. It also allows, usually mothers, but in some cases, fathers, to return to the workforce and continue to support their families and have the personal fulfillment of work. This is really a critical service that we offer the population of the Northwest Territories. Every dollar that is spent on children under five is a savings for expenses further down the road because it gives them the best possible start in life. I commend the Minister of Education, Culture & Employment for finding ways to provide additional support for childcare in the Northwest Territories.

I would certainly like to see it continue through the foreseeable future. There isn't really a time that we're not going to need childcare. We have a growing population of children, a large birth rate by national standards. We have good programs in some places; no programs in other places. I feel that we've made a really good start here on trying to make childcare a priority, and I support this wholeheartedly for the future of our children. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.

--- Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment direct the district education councils to keep technology to support student home-based learning during the COVID-19 pandemic; and further, that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment focus on positive interventions and outreach to improve relationships between families of "high risk" or vulnerable students. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When we reviewed this work, we found that there were two issues for many families. One was that they didn't have the tools to participate in the technology which are things like pads and laptops and so on. The other end of the problem was having the infrastructure where they could have the bandwidth to participate in long-distance learnings, and that's an issue that has been addressed by my colleagues from the Standing Committee on Economic Development and the Environment. They have talked about the need to complete the infrastructure necessary to make broadband available everywhere.

The tools and the infrastructure are two very important ways to help students continue learning, not only during the COVID period, but through any period in which they are in small communities, and all the course offerings are not available, and they need to do more distance learning. This is, obviously, a key piece of this.

We also recognize that families, in some cases, are very keen and able to assist their children in taking advantage of technology and distance learning, while others really struggle with that. The second part of this motion acknowledges that disparity among families and asks ECE to think of ways, and I'm sure teachers have already been doing this, but to continue to focus on ways in which they can engage vulnerable families to keep their children engaged in school activity when classes are out. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.

--- Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Committee MOTION 27-19(2):
Committee Report 3-19(2) - Standing Committee on Social Development Report on Long-Term Recovery: Recommendations to the GNWT - Wage Top-up, Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories continue to offer the wage top-up as a permanent program to businesses, providing financial assistance to Northwest Territories workers aged 15 and over and earning less than $18 per hour. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to say how important this program is to low wage workers. Eighteen dollars an hour is not a living wage here in Yellowknife, so then, it's likely not to be a living wage anywhere else in the Northwest Territories. What this federal program enables the Government of the Northwest Territories to offer is wages that are closer to the living wage threshold, and thus, families and workers have a chance to live above the poverty line. I know from the questions that my colleague asked yesterday that there has been some uptake in this program. More uptake could be accommodated and the amount of money that is available. I believe it's important to continue this program so that people who are working full-time get paid a living wage. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, this is, I guess, another one that I am passionate about. I've raised this issue with my colleague, the Minister of Finance, several times about the wage top-up program and want to commend her again. I think Cabinet did the right thing in extending this wage top-up to all low wage income earners in the Northwest Territories. It's not focused just on essential service workers.

I can support this but the real answer here is to increase our minimum wage, and that's what needs to happen. It's not just maybe into $18 an hour. It needs to be closer to a living wage that we can lift people out of poverty. We heard, I think yesterday from the Minister of Finance, that 293 workers are taking advantage of this program. They have to do it through their employers. I guess I'm going to quote from the Premier. I think it would be a sin to roll back these people's wages after the pandemic. It's just unconscionable that we would actually take money away from people.

Now, whether GNWT should be doing this through a wage top-up, that's a different issue, and I think, as I said, we need to just look at increasing the minimum wage. I've had some members of the public raise with me the issue that with a wage top-up, what we're actually doing for some employers is subsidizing, like maybe big box stores, franchises where some of those workers may not get much more than a minimum wage. As I said, I think the real solution here is to increase the minimum wage, and I look forward to that being done in our term. I am prepared to support this motion. It gets us part-way there, but the real answer is increasing the minimum wage. Thanks, Madam Chair.