Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is where I get to be the long tooth of the Assembly. I remember that same message back in 2003. So what is the blockage from some of these initiatives that's stopping this transfer moving forward? Thank you.

Was the lottery concept part of the redesign by the department? Thank you.

Let's see, can't change the Minister. Has to stay on the question line. I'm old school. I forgot that the land -- Mr. Speaker, with respect to community -- I'm going to waive the question. Thank you.

Was the program relaunching itself, or did it take some intervention by the department and the Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I don't mind the Premier being a Premier, but this is a significant departure from regular business, especially when Members on this side of the House are asking for action, but he does it unilaterally without any type of consultation. Has he spoken to Indigenous governments that he's appointed his principal secretary to be the Ottawa face of our politics, has he spoken to MLAs? Like, who has he spoken to outside of his own principal secretary and himself? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What actions or commitments has the Minister provided these organizations with respect to the responses to these changes? Thank you.

Well, there's a couple problems, Mr. Speaker. One is it's the grid that's the problem and the fact that it's setting a floor but also a ceiling in some cases. So it depends on where you're sitting, Mr. Speaker.

I'm asking the Minister because the money -- the funding is tied also to the grid, the funding each daycare gets, this negatively impacts those who have had different scales and are told to maintain them at the upper scales so the funding gap then starts to widen. Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister do to address the funding gap that is caused directly by this grid. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister keeps avoiding the question by saying how nice she is by saying I meet with this person and -- sure, that's great. But it's time to get the people in the room so you can hear their one major concern, the grid, and the grid it controls them, and it leads to the funding problem that they're facing.

Mr. Speaker, I ask again would the Minister call a meeting on behalf of -- or with all the daycares and their executive directors to sit down and get their one ask, help them with the wage grid? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to follow up on my statement which is my concerns about how daycares are paid -- or sorry, structurally paid through the grid formula created by the Department of ECE; and furthermore, Mr. Speaker, the challenge, of course, is that when a person with ten years of experience is paid less than a summer student, or even a grocery clerk, we have to start asking ourselves who are we serving in that particular thing.

Mr. Speaker, my question specifically to the Minister of education comes down to this: Given the immediacy of the urgency of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I had the pleasure, if not honour certainly, to speak to the executive directors of the Centre for Northern Families daycare, the Montessori daycare, and the Yellowknife daycare as well, Mr. Speaker. Although I didn't get a chance to speak to the YWCA daycare, I still feel for their plight and their concerns will be in my statement as well.

Mr. Speaker, the ladies quite eloquently, and I'll say firmly and clearly, made it very clear their challenges of staying alive in the sense of a business are being impeded by the government-imposed wage grid. Now, the wage...