Even with childcare set to become more affordable in the Northwest Territories, communities and families will still face significant barriers to accessing services, according to several MLAs on the Standing Committee on Social Development.
The comments were made during a March 7 while MLAs discussed the Department of Education, Culture and EmploymentSA国际影视传媒檚 (ECE) 2030 Early Learning and Child Care Strategy. This plan lays out four goals for improving childcare services over the next decade: improving affordability; creating and sustaining more licensed programs; improving access; and growing the early childhood workforce.
Shelley Kapraelian, ECESA国际影视传媒檚 director of early childhood development and learning, elaborated further on these goals in a presentation. She said ECE plans to create 75 new full-time equivalent childcare spaces by 2022-23 and 300 by 2025-26. In addition, wages would increase for as many as 312 workers in 2022-23 in an effort to retain qualified staff.
These goals are helped by federal funding streams, including $51 million over the next five years to reduce early childcare fees by an average of 50 per cent by the end of this year and to down to $10 per day, on average, by 2025-26. Altogether, the federal and territorial governments will invest a combined $114 million in early childhood education over five years.
ECE Minister R.J. Simpson said between 11 and 13 of the territorySA国际影视传媒檚 33 communities donSA国际影视传媒檛 have dedicated early childhood services. He said there are a number of reasons for this, from not having the appropriate facilities to not having enough daycare-aged children to warrant the service.
Inuvik Twin Lakes MLA Lesa Semmler asked how the plan would improve equity across the territory; stay-at-home parents who depend on income assistance, she said, would not qualify for daycare subsidies.
SA国际影视传媒淗ow are we going to bridge that gap so these children are able to access equitable daycare like any other kid in the Northwest Territories thatSA国际影视传媒檚 in a currently facility, where their parents can afford it, or afford 50 per cent?SA国际影视传媒� she asked.
Even once the new subsidies come into effect, not every family will see a reduction in their fees by half: rather, the 50 per cent reduction is an average across the entire territory.
Simpson said his department would likely review the income assistance program SA国际影视传媒渟o that the price, even $10 a day, isnSA国际影视传媒檛 a barrier to anyone.SA国际影视传媒� Income assistance is also the responsibility of ECE.
Monfwi MLA Jane Weyallon Armstrong asked what the department would do to improve access to speech and language pathologists for young children. Many children, she said, enter school without proper language skills, causing many to them to fall behind.
Simpson said early childcare centres already had access to funding they could use to contract speech and language pathologists.
Given the lack of proper infrastructure in many smaller communities, Frame Lake MLA Kevin OSA国际影视传媒橰eilly said the department needs to increase its $1 million per year Early Childhood Infrastructure Fund. SA国际影视传媒淎 million dollars is not going to build a daycare in a community that wants one,SA国际影视传媒� said OSA国际影视传媒橰eilly.
Simpson admitted that he shared OSA国际影视传媒橰eillySA国际影视传媒檚 concerns but said nothing more.
