Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to follow up a little on my colleague from Range Lake's comments around the funding.

First of all, I mean, you know, we've moved the needle a little on this for sure in the past few months. I keep in regular contact with the Children's First Society in Inuvik, and I know the Minister's been working hard with the territorial society as well and we have moved the needle a little up there, and it looks like they're not in the dire situation they were in and that it seems like their operation is now moving forward, which is great. And the $10 million is great. But, we are still in trouble. And I know the Minister knows that as well. I appreciate that the number of vacancy -- the number of spaces required is not tracked or waiting lists or whatever. But anecdotically, we know that we're in trouble in that we know, for example, Children's First Society has told me that if they had another building the same size they have now, they would fill it. You know, granted they could find professionals to work in there, but. So we know there's certainly a huge need in my community. We've gotten emails, and I know the Minister's gotten them as well, from medical professionals in my community saying, we're going to have to leave because we just can't find child care. And it's unfortunate because they enjoy working there and enjoy living there but the bottom line is, unless they get some help with, you know, with daycare, they're not going to be able to stay which is very, very troubling.

So I guess, you know, my question is, yes, we've got it here but what I'd like to ask the Minister -- and I know MLA Testart had said basically the same thing, what do you need? Because we know we have a problem. If it's a question of we need to put more funding into this, what do you need? And I'm sure the department has done some work on that, you know, in order. Because if we don't provide suitable daycare, we are going to lose, again, as I spoke about in many Member statements, we're going to lose talent, or we've lost talent. People are leaving. Doctors, teachers. And if they can't get suitable child care, they can't come here. And it's unfortunate. So I guess, yeah, my first question is what do you need? What would be your ask? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the goal is for our child care providers to be paid on par with education assistants across the territory, then the ask would need to be $3.5 million for wages and $3.5 million for compensation and benefits.

Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, excellent. So my obvious question is, then, why is that not in here? Because I think it should be if we need it. So if we need that, let's get it in the budget.

Would that then -- so are we talking, then, about being able to provide more spaces based on that or just that's what we need to maintain our current levels of 1,956?

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister to the question.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

I find this very frustrating. I do. Because this is such an important issue, and we look at -- you know, we regularly have -- we approve supplementals for infrastructure projects that are tens of millions of dollars over budget that we either mismanaged or got out of control. We can blame COVID and so on and so forth. And something like this, something like this that's just so important, to keep professional people in our territory, not only providing the services of -- whether it be doctors or nurses or teachers or lawyers or child care workers, but also coaching our kids in hockey and buying the groceries at our grocery stores and things like that that I've railed on about in this legislature about keeping people here, keeping those tax dollars here, to me, again, if we require $7 million, that $7 million should be there, full stop, and we find that money. And I get it. We've got tough decisions to make but this shouldn't be one of them. We should make sure that we have adequate child care for anybody who wants to live in this North, in the territories. And then does the department have a plan for looking at the additional spaces that we need over and above that as well? I mean, you said we had 1,956, 308 in the Beaufort Delta. Again, and I know it's anecdotal, I know we don't track that, but we do know we need it. I hear it from other Members, and I hear it from members in the community. What would be a long-term plan to ensure that we're, again, looking at investing in more facilities and increasing those spaces? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I absolutely agree with the Member that child care is very important. You know, having been a self-employed individual when I had my three children at home, if I did not go to work there was -- there was no sick days. There's no sick days when you're self-employed so I absolutely understand that.

As far as what is going on in the territory right now in order to create spaces, when we talk about policy change and policy evolution, one of the things that happened in the territory for the first time ever is if you live in public housing and you want to open a day home tomorrow, that will not be an impediment. So right now, we have 14 communities in the Northwest Territories that do not have any child care facilities, any licensed child care facilities. People in public housing can open a day home, and ECE will work with them to do that. We have early learning and child care coordinators who do that fine work and work very hard to try to make sure that people are supported to open day homes. And so that is something that can happen right now in the territory. Just last month, we had a visit from a federal minister to help make an announcement of $10.6 million over the next few years in order to inject infrastructure funding in our early learning and child care facilities in the Northwest Territories. So whether that is renovating a space to make it conducive to support daycare spaces in a community or in a town, that funding is there. It is also available for new builds. And so what we're doing right now is working with child care providers, working with Indigenous governments, working with education bodies, in order to determine how those dollars are going to start flowing out of the GNWT and into communities so that we can start working on these 75 spaces as quickly as possible. And anecdotically, you know, I know that, for example the community of Fort Smith, very, very open and honest, very beautiful facility they have and that they're operating out of right now. They could fill another facility tomorrow. Inuvik, you've spoken about, same situation. Yellowknife, same situation. Norman Wells, ready to go with a child care facility. So the need absolutely is there. The department is, you know, working as hard as it can to make sure that we are advocating at a federal level for additional funding and making sure that the feds also understand where we are at financially. And I know that we're not the only jurisdiction having that conversation. These agreements were put in place before record inflation, and that message is definitely being shared with the federal government as well. But we are working as hard as we can with what we have and ensuring that we are being as supportive as possible to Northerners who want to set up day homes because we absolutely value them, and we rely on the good work that they do.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, again, like, I appreciate the work that your department's done on this. Again, you know, from all indications from the Children's First Society in Inuvik, you know, they're very appreciative of the work that's been done by you and your department. And that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying I want to give you more money. I think you need more money. We need to continue this. We need to make sure that we got it looked after. That's great, that people in public housing can open day homes. I encourage people all the time, hey, if you're at home, open a day home. Hey, it's good income, and you're providing for the community. So you may have answered this question -- I wasn't sure -- not that you went on a little long or anything.

Is there startup program funding available for people still -- and I know this, I was at a trade show in Inuvik when it was brought up. I think ITI or someone had -- they had a trade show, and they talked about is there funding available for those who are interested in starting a day home? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The short answer to that is yes.

Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

That's it on this section. But more money. I want that $7 million in here.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.

Thank you. Of the 1,956 child care spaces that you just mentioned, so can you tell me how many of those are in Tlicho region? Or is this number part of Tlicho region, or are they excluded?

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Chair, the spaces in Tlicho region would be licensed spaces so any space that is licensed would be included in that 1,956.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.

Because the Minister mentioned North Slave, and I've been saying for quite some time that, you know, Tlicho regions. I want to know about the Tlicho region because we're not part of the North Slave. So North Slave consists of, as I've said before, Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh's riding as well, you know, so -- but if you have the number, it would be nice, you know. I would like to hear that number.

And I know that in small communities, due to the populations, I know many of the communities are not going to have child care centre, daycare centre. So how many licensed day home is there in small communities?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.