Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do these community justice committees take into account possibly the learning challenges, learning disabilities, cognitive disabilities that these individuals come before them might have when actually dealing with them and dealing with the youth in terms of putting them into an appropriate type of diversion program, or that the youth understands what they are actually going to these community justice committees for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister alluded to justice committees and alternatives in terms of programs in the communities. Can the Minister confirm how many communities in the Northwest Territories actually have active community justice committees and what type of activities they’re carrying out in terms of diversion?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Over the past few months, there has been a rash of criminal activity in the community of Inuvik. However, today on the news you all heard of the great efforts that the local RCMP attachment and its members are making.

I would like to congratulate the Inuvik RCMP Detachment for their continued support and ongoing work with the community, and their commitment and tireless efforts to make Inuvik a healthy and safe community. I personally worked with the RCMP on the Not Us campaign and also at the Inuvik Interagency Committee where their presence, involvement and engagement help...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Children First Society of Inuvik is a dedicated group of parents and community volunteers who are committed to a better future for Inuvik’s children. They also provide early learning and care services for the young children and their families in Inuvik and the surrounding communities as well. One way that the Children First Society is going to be doing this is by the creation of the Children’s First Centre, which began in the planning stages about seven years ago.

With the land, the design and the great support from the community, I’m pleased to say that construction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for providing that information in terms of daycare facilities and anyone that’s wanting to start up a daycare facility.

The question I was kind of referring to in my last question was particular for families. Families that need those subsidies to make a comfortable living but also have a safe and healthy environment, and to be able to put their young children in these daycares. Is there a subsidy for families that will offer them an easier life and way of living with early childhood development programming?

I commend the work that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is doing in addressing the issues from the Auditor General’s report. The Minister made reference to it, but he did mention the inspections of daycare facilities and making sure that all daycare facilities are up to code. I was wondering if the Minister can provide us with a specific update on how many of our daycare facilities in the Northwest Territories are exactly up to code so that we can provide the adequate services in a safe and healthy environment for our early childhood children and staff as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the current mayor of Inuvik, Mr. Denny Rodgers. I’d like to thank him for all his hard work and dedication for residents of the community of Inuvik. He’s also a big supporter of the Children First Society and a big lobbyist for the Aviva Community Fund, which the voting begins today.

I’d also like to recognize former Premier and newly elected Mayor Floyd Roland. I look forward to working with you over the next few years. I’d also like to recognize the mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, Merv Gruben, who is a strong advocate for a lot of projects in the Beaufort...

Thank you. The main concern here is we want to provide services and programs for the families out there in terms of early childhood programming. I want to ask the Minister in terms of space, cost in the NWT. We already have a very high cost of living, and in a community such as Yellowknife, there are a lot of facilities out there, but there are also high costs associated with it. So when we have a doubling of incomes sometimes, in some cases one of those incomes goes to child care fees. I want to ask the Minister if there are any subsidies in place for the high cost of child care for some of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are going to refer to early childhood development programming and infrastructure, keeping on the theme with all the good work that the Children First Society is doing up in Inuvik. I want to ensure that these programs are also provided to our small communities and our other regional centres, as well as here in Yellowknife.

I’m going to refer to the status report of the Auditor General of Canada, and specifically measuring the impact of early childhood education, there were a few things that were mentioned that needed to be taken into account. The department...

It is a room that is used for emergency situations and people that can possibly harm themselves. Right now there isn’t any in Inuvik and there might be multiple cases. For the larger centres, are we looking at doing possibly multiple rooms and not just a single room? Is that in the budget plans for future years as well?