Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NTHSSA has had deficit reduction plans. They've had independent third-party consultants review their operation. So, again, what is -- what will the public administrator do differently with these plans that the board didn't do and that the current administration of NTHSSA is not doing? I just don't understand why this is -- can the Minister just explain why this is such an important decision that is going to move things along when the old board and council could not do so? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I'm working with the -- within the -- you know, with the PA, once I have -- what is he doing right now is he's analyzing, he's working -- like I said, he's working with the regional wellness chairs, getting their feedback. He is doing the work that he needs to do right now with the CEO, understanding the complexities of our organization, and he will be coming back with a plan. And as soon as that plan comes back to Cabinet, I will be sharing it and discussing it with the Regular Members so that we're all 19 members in this House moving forward on a better plan on how we are going to make sure that the health care in the Northwest Territories is sustainable and that our residents have access to health care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what part of the agreement with the federal government for affordable childcare doesn't allow larger operators for making financially sound decisions like growing reserve fund or modest salary increases for workers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Canada-NWT Canada-wide ELCC agreement requires that the GNWT implement a certification system and a wage grid for early childhood educators and also that it achieves the average $10 a day per childcare fees for families in the Northwest Territories. However, the agreement does not define specifics on how the GNWT is to implement the certification or wage grid. That's something that we were able to do here in the territory by meeting with our stakeholders.

The wage grid identifies an hourly minimum that an educator must receive but doesn't set out the maximum, and the regulations do not prevent them from going above that.

In regards to a contingency fund, the centre-based operators are allowed to maintain funds as long as the contingency fund does not exceed an amount equal to three months or more than three months of operating expenses, and that amount can also exceed those three months as long as the funds don't come from ECE. So, for example, if they are doing fundraising and events like that, they are able to keep that amount and it doesn't count towards their three-month maximum. And in addition to that, there is nothing in the regulations that prohibits a licensed centre-based operator from accessing alternative fundraising -- or sorry, alternative sources of funding like fundraising, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Okay, so the math is not mathing still for me because -- I'm happy that the Minister has explained that a little bit better; it helps me put things together, but I also understand that the pressures of operating such a large daycare, largest in the territory, mean that there are cost pressures that are not adequately being addressed under these parameters.

So, Mr. Speaker, is it possible for the Minister to amend the regulations to allow for different scale and scope of operators to exist in the territory noting that, of course, daycare looks different in Tsiigehtchic than it does in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member. And I think it's fair to recognize that there have certainly -- I don't think it's a secret to anybody in this room, there's certainly been some growing pains as far as implementing our $10 dollar a day average childcare across the territory.

Our existing wage grid regulations have not fully come into force. So right now, ECE is working with operators to determine what that looks like, so with our centre-based operators. And that also means that not everyone has gone through the process of doing their certification and so not everyone is seeing the -- or sorry, early childhood operators across the territory are not yet seeing the increases based on their level of experience and as well their level of education. So until we see the regulations fully come into force, we won't be able to see how it's working throughout the territory. And so at this time, I would say to the Member that we really need to see how it comes into force and how it ends up working out throughout the territory before we determine what is and is not working. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding -- and I've highlighted this to the Minister already -- that this operator is concerned that the ELCC staff at ECE are -- you know, not in great contact with this operator. Can the Minister work to resolve this? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am in direct contact with the senior staff of education, culture and employment seven days a week unfortunately for them, but I very much appreciate how accessible they are. And as soon as I did receive the correspondence from the MLA, I immediately did reach out to the deputy minister because like I did say last year, these relationships are paramount and we want to ensure that the childcare sector is well supported and well informed and has access to answers to their questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To date, since the announcement of closures of the community learning centres, what has the department done in making recommendations as to what is going to happen in the near future with the community learning centres? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So in regards to the community learning centres, where we're at right now is working with Aurora College to gain clarity on what part of that space they continue to filling within communities and which part of that space they intend to pull back from so that we know as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment where we need to kind of react and be able to work with communities on ensuring access to adult education in small communities across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister give me and this House the number of employees who are directly impacted by the closure of the community learning centres? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly pull that back up for the Member. We did all receive an email that spoke directly to that. I just don't have it immediately at my fingertips right this very second. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta. Final supplementary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister conduct public consultation to the employees and affected communities on what the plans are for the learning centres within each respective community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess there's two things at play here. The first is that Aurora College will have a responsibility for communicating their plan, but ultimately as Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, I think there is a responsibility to ensure that all residents of the Northwest Territories understand what the go-forward plan is and what parts of that plan will be administered by Aurora College and what parts might fall to either Education, Culture and Employment or another entity within the Northwest Territories. And so I think there is a responsibility for some joint communication here to be able to share with all residents of the territory what that looks like. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. So on Friday, the Minister committed to publicly releasing a report on the community learning centres, completed just last year, that was based on a set of community consultations that assessed how well the community learning centres were working and what could be done better. So can the Minister confirm whether in those consultations, did communities recommend that the community learning centres be shut down, or did they provide suggestions for more innovative and effective approaches to adult education programming? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.