This is page numbers 5567 - 5614 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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 know.

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Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to take away from the French or the English languages that we have to know in order to progress to post-secondary. I'm not doing that because those are also a key to our education system. But the main key for the Indigenous people of the North is that the Indigenous languages have to be revitalized and I want to know if we could have -- you know, to start thinking about making sure that there is going to be a school established in the North, the first of its kind, to revitalize the nine Indigenous languages. And so we make a statement that how important the loss of our languages has been to the students and people of the North. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you. So as I stated, we are -- put resources in to developing language programming that can be offered at a post-secondary level. My hope is that the college, once it gets its feet under it in terms of the transformation, because there was a lot of work happening there, that they can begin looking at implementing some of those courses and that we can have these, you know, accredited post-secondary courses focused on language revitalization. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

I don't have any other questions.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Are there any further questions under this section? Seeing none, please turn to page 38.

Education, Culture and Employment, culture, heritage and languages, operations expenditure summary, 2023-2024 Main Estimates, $21,306,000. Does committee agree?

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Committee, please turn to page 43, early learning and child care, beginning on page 43 with information items on page 44 to 46. Questions? Member for Kam Lake.

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Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering if the Minister can let us know, under fees and payments there's a significant increase and I'm just wondering what fees and payments come out of there as far as early learning and child care. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

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Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

So I believe those are for the -- we have rolled out a child care fee reduction subsidy, and we provided child care operators with administrative funds so that they could hire administrative support to help them with some of that reporting. So that would account for those increases. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

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Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No, that's helpful information. I'm also just looking at the total raise in funds for the early learning and child care program budget. And I'm wondering what portion of this will go to dollars needed for the increase in the wage grid that is expected to come in the next year? Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you. $2.3 million is what we are projecting for this upcoming here, and we do not have a wage grid in place. What we are doing is we're providing wage top-ups essentially. We are providing it this year and in the upcoming fiscal year, we plan to increase that funding. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

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Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to roughly what that wage top-up will look like from the perspective of ECE. Is that top-up going to be roughly -- or can it even be worked into, you know, an average figure for people who provide early learning and child care across the territory? Thank you.

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Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you. So the way that we are distributing that, we look at how many staff are required under the regulations in a child care facility. And based on how many staff are required, which is based on the number of children and the age of the children that that facility cares for, we provide funding for each of those employees that are required. This year the funding is about -- or it is $12,750 for each of those employees. And next year will be just over $16,000. And I say for each of those employees, but this actually goes to the provider itself. It goes to the operator themselves, and then they distribute those funds to their employees because there could be instances where some employees perhaps have higher credentials; they might have diplomas or degrees and operators want to pay them more and they have that flexibility. So we provide them with a lump sum based on how many employees they're required to have and then they distribute it to their employees accordingly. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Member for Kam Lake.

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Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we're in a bit of an interesting jurisdiction where we are also very reliant not only on not-for-profit day cares, but we have a lot of day homes. When my kids went to child care during the day, all three of them went to day home providers, which was wonderful. I still have relationships with those people and adore them. My kids spent more time with those people than they did with me. And so I'm wondering how does it work within the territory as far as these wage top-ups? Is it provided to both day cares and day home providers, and how does that division happen when they both operate under the same act? Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

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Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you. So day homes are for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations are, you know, by definition nonprofit. And they have higher operating expenses. They generally have to rent or lease a space. They have salaries. So the parent fees that come into the day care centres versus the day homes don't go quite as far. And so day - child care centre employees are not paid -- don't earn as much as day home operators. So what we want to do is raise the wages of the child care workers so that we're going to attract more people to the sector but also to try to get everyone on par with each other and ensure that there's a level playing field. Thank you. So for that reason, that is why we are only funding the child care centres and not the day homes. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

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Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So I'm wondering can a day home call themselves a not-for-profit and in turn call themselves -- sorry, and in turn pay themselves a living wage, or where does that division happen? Is the division actually between the number of kids they have or the number of employees? How does ECE make that determination, or is it simply based on where they operate out of? Thank you.