Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would love to be able to say that this is actually spread out amongst the 33 communities. The reality is that we have 11 small communities that have no licensed daycare at all, so it's not spread out. Any licensed daycare centre or provider knows of this money and should be accessing this money. I don't know why they would not be. It is not available in all of the communities until we can get those 11 communities covered with licensed childcare facilities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I come from a non-profit world, and I am not known for -- I mean, I do it. I do the action plans and frameworks and stuff, but I am big on getting action, so when I say I am reviewing stuff, it is because I think we need changes, and so my commitment is to actually doing the changes necessary so that people get the best support possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are working very closely with the NWT Arts Council. We are just finishing up the Arts Strategy, the draft, which will have to go to standing committee. As soon as that is approved by standing committee and here, then we will be actually working on the action plan. I will try to get that done in this Assembly, but I can't commit that it will, because it is important that we get this right. Like I said, the strategy came across my desk, and I flipped it right back and said, "Let the Arts Council." I have committed to actually working very closely with the arts council on...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am more than happy to share a breakdown of it. However, I am asking for a little bit of time because the statistics that we have are from 2017-2018. I would rather get some more current stats, for 2018-2019, to be able to provide to the Members. I am just trying to find out when we know when that will be coming. The difficulty is that their fiscal year ends in July, so the data wouldn't be able to be given to the Members until the fall, which is just before. We could provide old information from 2017-2018, which is really outdated, if that is what is desired. Thank you...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, like I said, we don't know what the costs are. That is part of the process. We know that we are committed to doing this. This was agreed in the government report.

If Members think that they know the best for how we should be doing this, I am willing to take their feedback, and I will provide that to the associate deputy minister, who does have the credentials to actually move this forward, but I don't think that it is appropriate for us on this floor to be actually defining how the polytechnic university moves forward. We have hired a person to do that, and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2019-2020 Main Estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $9.8 million or three percent over the 2018-2019 Main Estimates.

Improving education outcomes and student success requires ongoing support from early childhood through to post-secondary education and training. Our 2019-2020 Main Estimates reflect this approach.

The 2019-2020 estimates includes funding of $2.4 million to support initiatives, including the expansion of the Northern Distance Learning program to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The early childhood staff grant is actually provided to staff who work at licensed childcare centres. It is provided to supplement their wages. It is provided to them directly, and I believe it's on a quarterly basis that they apply and are fund for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The funding for the Seniors' Home Heating Subsidy was actually reviewed last year, and we made some changes. We found that there was no consistency across the board, so we looked at the ridings. We tried to do it based on the market baskets in other departments. It did change some of the zones in the communities. Some of the communities actually got more money, and some actually got a little bit less because, in my opinion, it is a lot more expensive to provide home heating fuel in Tsiigehtchic than it is in Hay River. That is my personal opinion. I would have to have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I think that we do need to look at our arts community. It is another diversification of the economy. It is something that I think we need to support. We are just finalizing the Arts Strategy, which will be provided. It is just going through Cabinet and will be going to standing committee. Then, after that, we are developing an action plan. Within that action plan, we will identify increases as needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The part-time position would be mostly providing support to the licensed daycare centres and family homes currently in place. The regional coordinator's job, and that has been my direction, is the job to get into the communities that aren't there and to try to do education, public forums, to talk about the services that we have. Thank you, Mr. Chair.