Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ECC.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain as to whether the GNWT still considers surety bonds a reasonable fiscal instrument for mining reclamation, or are they being phased out for more solvent instruments in case of company bankruptcy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the surety bonds are still considered a very valuable type of security for this type of reclamation guarantee, and they are an asset that is fully able to be called upon on demand. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's important that the GNWT and residents know the fiscal capacity of mining operators. I would like to understand and have the Minister explain the process that GNWT takes to assess whether a company is deemed to be an assignment which would require a test of financial capacity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the process to determine if a company is an assignment or not is one that would require me to make an interpretation of something that I don't feel I'm comfortable with doing on the floor, as I also wear the hat as attorney general, and this is a legal interpretation, and I would not be able to answer that question at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Member from Great Slave. Final supplementary.
Mr. Speaker, if a mining company declares bankruptcy and reclamation is now a responsibility of the GNWT, can the Minister explain which division or unit in the GNWT would be assigned this work to reclaim the mine and any associated expenses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the division of lands, we have a team of -- I have to pull up the title here; give me one second.
Certainly, you know, the team that we have in place within lands is the land administration team which would be responsible for overseeing that process as the potential reclamation moves forward and would go back and look at how that process was entered into after a potential situation where a bankruptcy was declared. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ECE.
Mr. Speaker, what is the rationale behind not renewing the 2008 to 2018 literacy strategy; did the mandate of the department change somehow? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of ECC or ECE. Try that again.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we came in and started this Assembly, we actually talked as a group a lot about strategies. We talked about the multitude of strategies that we often find in government departments across the country that sometimes act as doorstops instead of guiding documents. And what we decided as a group is we wanted to see actionable, tangible items. We wanted to see programs being delivered rather than strategies being written. And so that has been my direction as Minister, that I want to see action in communities. And one of the things that we're working on right now is working to review the way that adult learning and basic education is delivered across the territory. Mind you, it was not something that was jump-started on our move, but it is work that is now being done holistically with communities that we will see evolve over the course of this Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I understand the Minister's point behind strategies; however, we are still funding programming using this strategy as I mentioned in the statement. Doesn't that necessarily suggest that the strategy should be up to date? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, all of our contribution agreements that we have within the Government of the Northwest Territories do come with an agreement. A memorandum of understanding is often also included in that. Many of them end up being redone year to year, and they use data in order to form what we're going to do. And we also work quite often with the NGOs that are applying on and receiving these contribution agreements in order to access this funding. And a lot of times, especially, you know, when we're talking about literacy, we're generally talking about a small handful of organizations, and they work most closely with residents and really are subject matter experts. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister for ECE. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement, the Minister made reference to the BC government because we have a BC curriculum. Will the Minister commit to funding screening, training, and support for students with learning disabilities for literacy as is being done in British Columbia? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we are in the process right now of finalizing a What We Heard report from the inclusive schooling review. That report will be out by the end of this calendar year and by the beginning of next calendar year, we will have a response to the recommendations from the government that I'm very happy to share and want to ensure that it's publicly accessible. And I fully intend from that and from the recommendations that come from that to have funding requests that I will in turn be working with my colleagues on. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
All right, thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member's statement today I talked about the struggle parents are going through and, you know, while I had a modicum of energy the other night, I was perusing the Education Act. Why? Because, well, I couldn't even answer that. But that said -- but I had the energy. When I have parents telling me that their children have finally been diagnosed at their individual costs, whether it's for dyslexia, dyscalculia, or even expression or receptive problems with language and delays, they wonder where the education system is --
(audio).
They wonder where the education system is under section 7(2). Mr. Speaker, if the schools cannot provide these assessments, can parents do these on their own and seek reimbursement through the department of education? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the way that our system is structured today, that funding request would have to go to the education body itself. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my statement, these can cost $3,000, even parents paying up to $6,000 per child for supports to get these actioned. Is the Minister saying that if parents request this through the educational body, the department of education will support these financial requests for these parents? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I'm saying is currently we have our school funding formula which turns around and funds education bodies. There is not a mechanism that these types of tests are currently supported through the department of education. One of the things that many education bodies do is look at their student body and find ways to support multiple students through the funding that they do have afforded to them. So any type of specialty type test that is done through the education body themselves would have to be done in discussion with the education body. I know that they do fund some specialty tests, but they do keep them to a minimum and do a certain number of them a year based on their funding. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, I knew the Minister would just say that the money's within the system. But also there's a section called section 18(3), and it talks about where the Minister may provide funding for tuition fees and costs in their discretion, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate it's not mandatory, but it says may. So if we're not meeting the needs of the students to the best of abilities of the school system, can parents pursue these things, because some of them are waiting years to get help. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think this is critical information that we're going to get back from families in regards to the inclusive schooling review. We had a tremendous amount of families, of educators, of students participate in this review and explain their experience and their needs to the department of education, and I fully intend to use that information to form our next steps. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, day homes are struggling with stagnant subsidy support from the government to provide $10 a day daycare. One of the things they're asking for is for additional services to be charged back to clients. This is something clients are okay with. It's something that already happens in Alberta and other jurisdictions. Will the Minister permit day homes to charge additional services -- charge for additional services they provide? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of ECE.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we -- sorry, Alberta calls those voluntary service fees, and we have gone back to our daycare and day home providers and said that they're able to do the same thing that Alberta is doing. I've also expressed this to the NWT Early Childhood Association as well. There are some rules around that in that the fees do need to be voluntary and that they can't hold back other kids within the system if their families are unable to meet the requirements or the asks of the voluntary fee. Thank you.
I am going to take that as a yes, Mr. Speaker. So thank you for that to the Minister, and I hope she communicates that to day homes soon because they're still unaware of that change.
Mr. Speaker, the work of day home providers is different from daycare centre providers. Their wage grid does not take into account longevity of service provided in the North, education, or Indigenous knowledge. Will the Minister update the wage subsidy for day home providers so it reaches parity with daycare centre providers so we're not playing on two different playing fields.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, in regards to the Member's first question about the voluntary fees, a letter did go out to daycare and day home service providers in April of this year explaining how they can go about using that, and I also was able to reiterate that in my recent meeting with the NWT ECA as well.
In regards to the salaries for daycare and day homes, what we were able to do is, with our best data, look at the average salaries across the board that people are collecting and make sure that they were on par, and the work that we did earlier this year was in order to bring up the wage of daycare service providers because it was significantly lower. And so we were able to use the $3.5 million that the Member referenced in order to do that.
It is worth saying, Mr. Speaker, that this program is costing jurisdictions across the country a tremendous amount of money in order to administer. It is not properly funded for us to be able to administer this federal program the way we'd like to do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I still think we should have fair compensation for day home operators that are doing the same work; they're just not getting paid the same amount.
Mr. Speaker, currently the age ratios for younger kids is -- needs to be adjusted -- let's just put it that way -- to 18 months and under. If we did that, we'd get more infants into these spaces. Right now, it's really only about the older kids. Will the Minister change the definition for infants to 18 months and younger so we can get more kids into care, get more people back to the workforce after their parental leave, and start making a difference in the lives of northern families? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, this month I had the opportunity to sit down with the NWT Early Childhood Association. We talked about some different ideas like this to increase flexibility and also make sure that we're working together to best serve residents of the Northwest Territories. I agreed with them that I would work with them on some of these ideas. Age range is one of those ideas, and the department continues to work on that, and I'm happy -- sorry, I'm speaking way too fast because I'm excited about this one. So yes, very happy to work with the Member and continue working with the NWT Early Childhood Association on ways that we can make changes. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member's statement, I have questions for the Minister of ECC.
Mr. Speaker, when is the Minister -- or can I get a commitment from the Minister or an update -- I should say -- from the Minister on the commitments that I outlined in my Member's statement regarding the traditional use cabins? Where are we with that, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. The Minister for ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I know this has come up a number of times on the floor of this House, and I'm very happy to speak to it. It's certainly one of my more passionate areas that I'm trying to advance.
So to date, we have -- you know, we've proposed an amendment to the NWT land regulations to reduce the rent rate down to a dollar. We're currently working with the Intergovernmental Council Secretariat and Indigenous governments on this process. As recently as a week or two ago, there was a meeting of the technical working group where GCC took part in that discussion to ensure that, you know, we're trying to pursue this. And I've said on the floor of this House before, this is really a collaborative effort between the GNWT as well as all of the Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations and certainly want to respect that process, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I certainly appreciate the Minister is passionate about this. We've had obviously several conversations around this, Mr. Speaker. But when it comes to working shoulder to shoulder, when it comes to reconciliation, Mr. Speaker, this is low-hanging fruit. We should have this work done. This is now the second Assembly, and what I don't want to see is this moving into the 21st Assembly. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister give me a timeline on when we anticipate this work will be done and ready to proceed? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know this is going to be hard for the Member to hear. You know, I can't commit to a timeline because I really have to respect the collaborative protocol that guides this work. And, you know, it's recognized of value in achieving this work, but we can only get there through a collaborative process that ensures that we're respecting all parties, and there's not always necessarily perfect alignment amongst -- we have a number of Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations at the table as we go through this work and, you know, we want to ensure that we're respecting everyone's independent position and that we're collaborating and working together for results that are, you know, action-oriented at the end of the day and that meet everybody's needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Oral questions. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, you know, the Indigenous residents and Indigenous governments I speak to are ready to get this work done. As I said, it is low-hanging fruit. Can -- you know, whether the Minister can commit to this but what I'd like to know from this Minister, are we working towards zero or nominal leases for Indigenous rights-based cabins and camps for harvesting in the Beaufort Delta? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I think I've said this many times. My goal here is to have the Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations come forward with paths forward that work for everyone. And my goal at the end of the day is to have a zero-dollar fee attached to this. I think, you know, in the interim, we have the ability to move down to a nominal fee, which is as low as we can go, down to a dollar within the legislation. And I think that's our interim target as we work together collaboratively to find a solution to this once and for all and get that fee down to zero dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
