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.
