Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize all the translators who are doing a very good job during our sittings, especially to our Gwich'in translators, Eleanor Firth and her sister -- jeez, I even forgot her name. Her sister, they both do an exceptional job there. They're young ladies that carry on the language. Her name is Karen, sorry. Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.

I'd like to recognize Amy Fraser, a great advocate in Fort Simpson. She's also the chair for the DEA, hint, hint, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. She's up there. And as well as Mary Jane Cazon, our translator for Dene Zhatie from Fort Simpson.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery -- oh, sorry. Kicking it into fast gear; sorry about that. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to your chamber. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It is always nice to have people in the gallery to see us work. You guys put us here, so thank you very much for the honour.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Replies to the Budget Address, Day 6 of 7. Acknowledgements. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me pleasure to do this acknowledgement.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to acknowledge four Indigenous Language Revitalization Scholarship recipients for 2024-2025 from the Sahtu region --

• Samantha K'ai Kenny;
• Jennie Vandermeer;
• Marie Speakman; and,
• Karen Menacho.

-- have each received a $5,000 scholarship from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

These recipients are advancing the preservation of Sahtu Dene Kede. Two currently live in the Sahtu region, while two others are Sahtu Dene Kede speakers with roots in the Deline community. Their commitment demonstrates our people's vital role in strengthening our cultural heritage.

The Indigenous Language Revitalization Scholarship supports students dedicated to language preservation in the Northwest Territories. Through their work, Samantha, Jennie, Marie, and Karen help ensure future generations' access to our ancestral languages and cultural knowledge.

Congratulations to these deserving recipients. Their work strengthens both the Sahtu region and Indigenous language preservation across the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to follow up on my statement which is my concerns about how daycares are paid -- or sorry, structurally paid through the grid formula created by the Department of ECE; and furthermore, Mr. Speaker, the challenge, of course, is that when a ten-year -- a person with ten years of experience is paid less than a summer student, or even a grocery clerk, we have to start asking ourselves who are we serving in that particular thing.

Mr. Speaker, my question specifically to the Minister of education comes down to this: Given the immediacy of the urgency of the financial ability of all of these daycares, I would ask the Minister would she convene a small conference of executive directors and presidents or chairs of each society to have a conversation to hear directly their financial stresses and how they are presenting solutions that can get to solvent daycares as opposed to where they're going right now which is insolvent daycares. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have the Northwest Territories Early Childhood Association which is made up of both daycares and day homes and their representatives which is in constant contact with ECE. I have also had the opportunity to meet with that organization, and my last words to them was I'm more than happy to get together anytime. I'm also more than happy to get together with daycare providers. I have had outreach now as of last night from YK Daycare Association, and any time that, for example, the YK -- sorry, the YWCA has reached out to me, I have certainly taken them up on the opportunity to sit down. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I'm asking the Minister would she convene an immediate meeting and host a discussion with them about trying to solve their financial challenges, because right now they cannot afford to keep their doors open any longer, people are turning jobs down in the Northwest Territories because they know there are no spots, and they're losing employees to other jobs because they cannot pay them outside of the wage grid. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister call for an immediate discussion with these people? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have heard from the YK Daycare Association, and I'm very happy to meet with them. I'm very happy to meet with any organization that would like to sit down, and they also have constant access as well to ECE, to their early childhood coordinators, and I know that the director of early childhood and learning has also met with people. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister keeps avoiding the question by saying how nice she is by saying I meet with this person and -- sure, that's great. But it's time to get the people in the room so you can hear their one major concern, the grid, and the grid it controls them, and it leads to the funding problem that they're facing.

Mr. Speaker, I ask again would the Minister call a meeting on behalf of -- or with all the daycares and their executive directors to sit down and get their one ask, help them with the wage grid? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to meet with daycares on the Member's terms. I'm going to meet with the daycares on their terms. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too would like to ask questions about our early childcare -- or early learning childcare arrangements. The Yellowknife Daycare Association is bringing concerns forward about funding. Day homes are bringing concerns about funding. I know the Minister is a passionate advocate of this. We've brought this up on the floor now. The issue is funding, there's not enough of it. How does the Minister intend to solve this problem? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly I am hearing the words of Members this week. I am hearing the words of parents. And I am hearing the words of childcare providers as well. So what I can say, Mr. Speaker, is this conversation really revolves around the regulations. The regulations were set through extensive feedback from operators. And some examples -- well, I won't get into examples of some of those things that ended up in there. What I will say, though, is that there is a commitment to review the regulations after the first year. I understand from the Members that is there's not enough money in the system. I can acknowledge that from this House here, that acknowledgement has been made and there has been continuous beefing up, so to speak, and additions made to that budget to try to rectify that. So certainly working -- ensuring working with operators and ensuring that they understand the regulations, first and foremost, and figuring out how we can kind of work through the regulations especially that are coming from the federal government to make sure that we can keep sustainable childcare in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last budget, we voted an additional $3.5 million to support this program, and I understand that money has not been spent. Can the Minister explain why that money is not getting out to daycare providers where we intended it to go. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for that question. So there was $3.5 million that was negotiated by Members in the fall of last year that was specific for daycare workers. Those dollars required the completion of the wage grid. As for the wage grid, the wage grid has a reliance on levels of education to determine where people fit within the wage grid. And so what we were asked for through the consultations on that wage grid was to not start rolling the dollars out until people per childcare facility had completed either their certification and gotten their paperwork in, so some people weren't receiving back pay and some people were. So people will receive the back pay right through this whole fiscal year, so they won't be -- no dollars will be held back if it comes at a later date, but we wanted to respect the fact that there is consistent pay or desire for consistent pay throughout childcare facilities. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister has been -- the centres are asking for that so there's consistency, and that's reasonable. But why is it taking so long to get this grid together, Mr. Speaker? We're talking about slow government. This is a year, and the money is still sitting there. So are people doing this off the side of their desk, or is this a commitment -- or is this a focus of the department to get this out and get this money spent where it needs to support families with young kids? Because that's what this money's intended for, Mr. Speaker, and it's what this House voted for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the wage grid is done. It's in regulation. So the process that's happening now is people are either providing their degree paperwork or their diploma paperwork and going through that certification process. People who don't have any post-secondary education are required to complete that 54-hour modularized course that the Member and I spoke of earlier in this sitting, and so there -- some people are in the process of still completing that coursework. And as we talked about earlier, ECE is happy to also support people to complete that work and help them through it. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I just want to say that education is a treaty right, and small communities do matter. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of ECE confirm whether Aurora College or the departments are discussing transferring responsibility for learning centres to Indigenous governments and also in Fort Resolution and Lutselk'e? Thank you.