Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m not 100 percent sure this is exactly in the right section, but I can’t find another area for it. I just wanted to ask the Minister if he and his department have some sort of plan to address the issue of absenteeism. That’s been a topic where last year it was in the news where kids are losing a year by the time they’re getting halfway through elementary school just from being absent so much. So absenteeism is an issue that’s affecting the kids’ education levels when they finish grade 12 because people are continuing to pass through the system with their peers, so by...

I thank the Minister for that response. I think it’s essential. These dollars become essential to small communities and may not be essential. They are dollars that are nice to have. In small communities it’s nice to be able to have daycares and city of Yellowknife daycares in the regional centres for kids to go to. I just wonder if any of that support is given to those daycares, because it appears as though the money is not avaialble to small communities in a large way.

For two days I asked the Minister questions on daycare, preschool, and I kind of came away with the feeling that the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am interested in asking a question to the Minister on the Early Childhood Development Program. Mr. Chairman, I am wondering if the department has a criteria of allocating dollars in early childhood development dollars that are there to support daycare, child care and any sort of preschool, kindergarten, anything that is covered under the early childhood development, if the department has any criteria on which communities get it and if such a criteria exists, how it is applied when they determine where the money goes. I would like to start with that, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister direct the staff at ECE to develop a program and provide financial support to accredit daycare workers and preschool teachers? Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I spoke of the importance of preschool and daycare in small communities; Lutselk'e today. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment recognize that preschool is paramount for the success of students from kindergarten to grade 12? Thank you.

Is enrolment and absenteeism essentially the same in this overall strategy? I understand the increase in enrolment of Aboriginal students would be something, but once they’re enrolled, what the Minister referred to as going up I’m assuming is that the absentee rates are going down. Is that the correct assumption, Mr. Chairman?

Just to finish off on the same topic, I think that the department should consider making a shift to our small communities, to start supporting small communities. Make it possible for people in small communities to make the productive choice to ultimately be able to support themselves. The benefits of people working are many in the Northwest Territories. There would be a savings in education, health, housing, income support, all of those areas. If we could support the people to help them with things like taking care of their children when they’re trying to make productive choices, go back to...

Mr. Chairman, in the smaller Aboriginal communities, I see that everything is tied together and the first problem exists with the lack of employment in small communities. With the lack of employment in small communities, then people are home taking care of their own children, so they don’t necessarily need daycare. However, if we continue, then it will always exist. We will always have low employment numbers in the small communities and people will always be home taking care of their children and not making any other productive choices to change that from being employed so that the employment...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister begin a process including building a building to house daycare and preschool in the department’s infrastructure plan? That could even be a renovation to the current school, Mr. Speaker, into the infrastructure plan. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment realize that daycare is an essential service in the communities so that parents can make productive choices? Thank you.