R.J. Simpson

COVID has really changed a lot of things, but there are few who have been upended as much as teachers and students. There are things like the tourist industry, but schools across the world have been feeling this. I understand and I appreciate the sacrifice that teachers are making because not everyone is from here. I'm lucky that my family is in the territory. I don't have to go outside of the territory to see them, but that's not the case for everyone. Most of our teachers are from outside of the territory. A lot of them are young, and this could be their first time really away from their...

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories is home to a diverse group of people who live in a vibrant landscape shaped by rich culture and heritage. Our nine official Indigenous languages and our cultures bear sacred values and traditional knowledge that have been passed on through generations, shaping our identity and defining what makes the North truly unique. As leaders and residents of the Northwest Territories, we share the responsibility of revitalizing our Indigenous languages through celebration and practice to preserve our traditional ways of life. As Minister of Education, Culture and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to recognize and congratulate Max and Julia Trennert, who are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary today. Max and Julia first met 61 years ago in Inuvik. He was working as a surveyor and also managing the Mackenzie Hotel. She was a student at the time. They say it was love at first sight.

Max and Julia were married on February 5, 1960, in Inuvik. That's also where their first three children were born. From Inuvik, they moved to Fort Simpson, where their fourth child, Brendalynn, who most of us know, was born. Max and Julia then relocated close to...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 457-19(2): Interpreters." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to assure the Member that everything he is saying is what we're doing. This is actually what we're working on. I wish I had a product I could pull out of my back pocket right now, but I don't. There have been endless reports on early learning, universal childcare, childcare needs across the territory. There has been engagement with childcare providers. There has been a lot of work done. Right now, the department is looking at all of that work, putting it all together, taking what they know from their interactions with early learning and childcare providers, putting it together with what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are developing a strategy to advance toward universal childcare, and one of the things we have to do is figure out what we want to do and how much that would cost. There are different options, right now, for what universal childcare would cost. Do we stick with what we have now? Does the government play a larger role in terms of providing care, perhaps where there is no care? There are a lot of things, and so, while the paper was a good start, it doesn't cover all the different models. The numbers that the Member is looking for, we're working on all of those and we...

No. I don't have those numbers now because part of those numbers would involve capital infrastructure costs, because it's hard to call something universal childcare if it's only a subsidy for the lucky few who can access it. We need more infrastructure. We need more trained individuals before we can say that we are providing universal childcare. I don't have those numbers.

That being said, the federal government has expressed an interest in some sort of a national universal childcare program. I will be meeting with the federal Minister next week to be discussing this to see exactly what that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The take a child to work program is a great program. It has been offered for many years. It's very successful. Unfortunately, in this last year, due to COVID, it went online, and so it was not at all the same experience. It will be back in full force in the fall, and I can look into any potential changes and get back to the Member. Thank you.

I am not personally working with the opposition party, the critic or whoever that might be. However, our Premier is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's a high priority for me. I told the federal Minister sometimes it may be difficult to figure out where we lie as a government, given that you can't just say we're this party or that party and you can basically understand our platform. That's why I told him, "Let me assure you that we are fully committed to advancing universal childcare and it is a high priority." That work is already done.