Bob Bromley

I think I followed most of that. Is it easy to define the general taxation area?

I can hold it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ve got a couple of questions here. I’m just looking down at the narrative here on page 16, and I see the land use planning and sustainability unit, the land use sustainability unit, the land use planning unit. That’s three different sections or divisions or whatever. The land use planning and sustainability unit and then we have the land use sustainability, then we have land use planning. There’s something that is just mind warping about this. Do we actually have, like, a manager or a director or something in each of these units and why the heck don’t we get rid of one...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to welcome Dr. Ewan Affleck, M.C., to the House today, a resident of Weledeh, and of course, welcome all of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Advisory Committee members that could make it today, and the mayor of Yellowknife, Mark Heyck. Mahsi.

That’s pretty clear. I certainly hope the formula changes too. For the recreational funding that goes to communities here, my community of Ndilo is in an awkward position as they’re considered part of Yellowknife, and the community of Detah, which is really an extension of the Ndilo/Detah community is funded separately, I believe, from Ndilo. Is there any consideration to working with Ndilo on this awkwardness and predicament it puts them in? It’s sort of difficult for them to compete for Yellowknife funds, and Detah funds were meant for Detah, so it’s difficult for them also for the Ndilo...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a lot of questions. I’ll see what I can get through here, and I appreciate very short, concise answers. Junior kindergarten, what’s the junior kindergarten implementation dollar amount for the 29 communities scheduled in ’14-15? That’s the year under discussion.

Secondly, I know the Minister has agreed that a fully qualified ECE worker is needed for every junior kindergarten group. I don’t call them a class because that implies teaching. We’re talking child development. The Minister has agreed with that, but I still haven’t heard him commit to meeting this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is no question, I think the record is strong and clear on the national and international front that early childhood development is the best possible investment that any government can do, that any nation can do, that any jurisdiction can do, in terms of education, reducing corrections costs, and economic development. The list goes on. Health and reducing health costs, generating local economies. The list goes on and on. Family integrity, social structures. These are completely well documented, especially when there’s a clear and consistent focus starting with the...

I would love to hear the Minister respond and correct me.

Thanks to the Minister. I find myself returning to early childhood development, probably not surprisingly. Just in terms of the work to establish family resource centres, child and family resource centres and activities in communities, I think we’re a year and a half into the work in Ndilo and Detah, which already had some work already going on there. What is the outreach plan for other communities and what is the long-range plan for those centres, and particularly how are they being focused on the early years? Mahsi.

Would the Minister commit to providing committee a briefing in writing or in person on the various levels of qualifications for early childhood education workers and how many of each level – I think he gave us some information on that but perhaps he could provide that in writing – that are available by community, and what level of ECE worker qualification is provided by Aurora College programs currently, number of graduates and what the plan is for the immediate future in terms of training actually fully qualified ECE workers?