Thank you, Member for Sahtu. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm also going to rise to recognize Sara Morris and her mom Jeanette. So I just wanted to say thank you to both of them for their hard work. As I mentioned in my statement, Jeanette has done a lot of work with the YWCA over the years and it's clear that that work has led to her daughter carrying on that for our community. So I'm very grateful to have them here and grateful for the work both of them have done. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thought the Minister of Infrastructure would leave me one of my constituents but I have the pleasure of noticing that Ellie and Steve Loutitt, who are Yellowknife South residents, are here in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife South. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My apologies, everyone. I added my name to the list before seeing everybody else already recognized them.

I'd like to recognize both Ellie Loutitt and Sara Morris, who I've had the pleasure of knowing for most of their lives. I think that our youth have a very powerful voice, both in this House and in our communities, so it's great to see youth participating here today. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Welcome, everyone. If we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber and I hope you enjoy the proceedings. It's always nice to have an audience here, especially family and friends of our Members. Mahsi.

Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the early learning and childcare system in the territory is less a system and more of a group of partnerships, people working together. The GNWT does not provide early learning and childcare services but it supports those providers. And the way that this new money is going to flow back to parents is similar to what we did in the summer of 2020 with the funding for COVID when we reduced childcare fees.

So those licensed centres, childcare centres, that want to opt in to this program will receive a childcare fee reduction subsidy. They will then flow that money back to parents. And to ensure that they are supported, we are going to be providing those childcare providers with some administrative funds to help support them in those efforts because we understand it will be a lot of work, and so we're supporting them financially to do that work. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, and I guess the devil will be in the details.

But my second question is straightforward. Can the Minister tell us whether and how much of the new funding under this agreement is available for infrastructure to create new childcare spaces? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as the Member's aware, we have our own infrastructure fund for early learning and childcare. That's a million a year.

We have the two agreements with Canada. We have a bilateral agreement as well as the Canada-wide agreement, and each of those contain just over a hundred thousand dollars for infrastructure. In addition to our own programming, we have almost $300,000 in health and safety funding which can be used for upgrades to ensure that centres are compliant with the requirements of the fire marshal. In our bilateral agreement, there's also around half a million for additional grants to support the purchase of supplies that are needed to operate the childcare centre.

So throughout our two agreements, as well as our own funding, we do provide supports for infrastructure, and we've also looked at all of our programs and are determining if there's a need to have more infrastructure funding and how we might be able to repurpose some of the current funding that we have towards that given that we now have a large influx of money from the federal government. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm always happy to support more funding on the capital side for infrastructure. Even if he wants to bring forward a SUP, I'm happy to support that. As I said, we have an agreement and that's a welcomed thing, but I'm still worried about when these benefits are going to start to flow. I expect smaller communities, especially the 11 without licensed child cares, will not see any benefits under this new agreement for years.

Can the Minister tell us what the plan is for the communities without licensed childcare spaces and how he will make sure there's an equitable approach across the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And since we began the Early Learning and Childcare Infrastructure Fund, we prioritized applications from small communities. It's important to note that not all small communities need childcare facilities. In some communities, there's no children under the age of five. And in some communities, there's so few children that they would prefer to be with family. So I don't think we're ever going to have a scenario in the territory where every single community has a licensed childcare centre. There's going to be different options in different communities. But we are supporting -- we are prioritizing those small communities that don't have childcare and we're going to work with the Indigenous governments and NGOs who might be interested in operating childcare facilities. And I have to note that Indigenous governments also have a separate stream of funding from the federal government that they can access to help support the development of childcare facilities. And so we all need to work together and if there is not an organization in a region who's interested in opening a childcare centre, we're more than happy to provide any support we can through our early learning and childcare consultants that we have in all the regions and who do a great job. And they are our boots on the ground. And I recommend that anyone who has an interest in opening a childcare centre, contact them. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I was getting worried there it was going to be a Minister's statement there. But this agreement promises great things for the next five years but it's not clear how sustainable childcare will be over the longer term.

Can the Minister tell us what the plans are to ensure there's sustainable universal and affordable childcare across the NWT after this five-year agreement ends? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I apologize for my long answers. It's an exciting topic, and if the Member doesn't want long answers he shouldn't ask such exciting questions.

We will continue to advocate for longer term funding. We always do that. The federal government has also created an Early Learning and Childcare Secretariat so they really are putting the infrastructure around this system to help ensure that it is stable. And I suspect there's also some legislation in the works from the federal government to ensure that this funding lives on past the current government. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for Youth, Minister Thompson there.

We often speak in this room about the many silos within the GNWT and given that there are several supports, several departments that fund programs and supports for youth such as Health and Social Services, ECE, Housing, what is the Minister doing, as the Minister responsible for Youth, to work with his colleagues to ensure that youth aren't falling into the gaps of the GNWT funding? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Youth.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for the question. I'm going to try to keep it succinct because this is a very important topic for myself. As well you are well aware, you see my grandchildren in this room here.

So Mr. Speaker, we are having conversations with our colleagues from ECE, Health, Justice, Housing as well. You know, these are conversations we have. We have Cabinet -- a committee of Cabinet. We have those conversations. But we also have the conversation at the department level on how we can work together with our other departments and NGOs out there. So it is very important, and we look to see how we can enhance our existing funding sources to help the youth move forward or start the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And actually it couldn't be more timely that the Minister's family is all here while I speak about youth, and I do know that there is a focus of his on that area.

And speaking of which, when we focus on youth and we divert them from a life of poverty, we will actually end up saving ourselves a lot of money in the long run. So can the Minister speak to why the GNWT is not funding Home Base's youth centre given that they are the only organization in the Northwest Territories that is solely supporting youth. Thank you.

Thank you. For that detail, I'll have to get back to the Member on it. But my understanding is it's an application-based through our youth centres. They can put their applications in and then it's allocated accordingly. But in regards to Home Base, I will have to find out exactly why that funding hasn't been available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And yeah, that does speak to a lot of what we talk about around making our NGOs and non-profits jump through hoops in order to get our funding versus the core funding that I know my colleagues often push for. So, yeah, more of a comment on that.

I guess my next question is does the Minister commit to joining me and working with me to do a tour of Home Base and have those conversations with the executive director there? It's my feeling that by getting feedback from the stakeholders, we can better inform our processes going forward. Thank you.