Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 5 on the order paper. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

It is my understanding that ECE increased its subsidy for the first time in eight years last fall, but that no further increases are being planned, and yet these programs are going to lose their four-year-olds, or some of them, come this fall. How is the Minister going to offset the loss of those children in the fee-based programs?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about parents who want to maintain the current range of choices for early childhood development and I asked the Minister in writing to provide an analysis of how the implementation of JK will accommodate the existing programs. Unfortunately, I didn't get an answer. My question is: can the Minister say whether this analysis has ever been done, and if not, will he undertake it? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On Tuesday I spoke about the work the Standing Committee on Social Development will be doing during the break. We will be reviewing Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act. In addition to reducing instruction hours, the amendments to the act will establish junior kindergarten as a territory-wide program.

Mr. Speaker in his response to my written questions earlier this week, the Minister failed to answer two questions. They concerned the viability of other, non-school-based programs that serve four-year-olds.

Mr. Speaker, the larger communities like Yellowknife, Hay River...

I would like to thank my friend and my colleague Mr. Nadli for his words. I know that they are spoken in truth and from the heart. I also know that the voters of the Deh Cho made the right choice in returning him to this Assembly as their MLA because he is a very good MLA. I very much appreciate the wisdom that he brings to our debates, as he has done here today. That said, we are not on the same page.

I want to talk about a couple of things. The reason that we are talking about family violence and not drunk driving or theft or a number of other crimes is because of the prevalence of family...

Mr. Chair, I have heard some justifiable concerns from my colleagues about the need for greater definition around the phrase "exceptional circumstances" and some clarity about how this is going to work in the context of eligibility for being a candidate in the territorial election. I think that that is a worthy question, and I believe it is worth the committee's time to examine it, and to provide some clarification to it, and bring it back to this House for further consideration. Thank you.

I could make one. I move that recommendation number 2 of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures report entitled "You Are Standing for Your People" be referred back to the Rules and Procedures Committee for further clarification. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I just want to go back to the point at which this motion was passed and sent to the committee on rules and procedures. We had not been here long enough to find the washrooms and most of us had come in as brand new Members following an unprecedented turnover of incumbent MLAs.

What I and others came in on was a wave of hope for change and increased accountability. There was a feeling among people in the electorate that people in this room were taking too much for granted in terms of their privilege and their position and that it was time for us to re-examine that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, we have been joined by several members of the Family Violence Coalition of the NWT, including David Wasylciw, Sami Thomas, Annemieke Mulders and Lyda Fuller. I'd like to welcome them to the House to hear our discussions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister's plan is going to provide the lowest common denominator of early childhood education, where there will only be junior kindergarten and plain daycare. An alternative to this would be to provide a subsidy for each child of four years of age rather than to a whole program. I asked him if he would examine this option, which on the face of it would save a lot of money -- it is less than half the cost of having a child in a school classroom -- and report on his research, but I haven't heard back. Does this research exist? Thank you.