A Yellowknife MLA says the territorial government should make it easier for early learning and childcare centres to get paid the right amount for their work.
Last week, Canada’s auditor general released a report about how the territory’s Department of Education, Culture and Employment supports these facilities.
Auditors found the department had not collected documents like staff timesheets or proof of enrolment to confirm the funding it sent to providers was accurate.
That could result in providers being sent too much money, the auditors said.
Speaking in the legislature on Tuesday, Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan said she “takes issue” with the auditors’ assumption that the biggest risk is overpayment.
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“It assumes childcare providers are trying to make more money than they deserve, and the GNWT’s focus should be to catch them by requiring more detailed proof that they’re actually providing the services they say they are,” said Morgan.
“What I hear instead from childcare providers is that they have to regularly fight tooth and nail just to get the amount of funding that’s due to them.”
She said funding to these centres is administered “in an overly complicated way,” resulting in payment mistakes and underfunding.
Morgan said she has also heard from providers that it can be “exceedingly difficult” to contact department staff to have these mistakes corrected.
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“It’s not like we’re seeing the big daycare fat cats getting rich all around us,” said Morgan.
“The facilities are generally run by non-profits, people who care, and they’re just trying to fill a need in their community.”
Responding to questions on the topic, education minister Caitlin Cleveland said payments to providers used to be based on forecasts.
“That information can change throughout the year – throughout months – as students might have different attendance records, they might stop coming to a space, they might not fill a space, or spaces also can close depending on the availability of educators,” said Cleveland.
She said the department is working with its partners to ensure it has “much more robust ways of providing that verification.”
The minister said the department wants to balance the administrative burden providers face with ensuring the payments it provides are accurate.
She said ECE and the NWT Early Childhood Association are working to streamline processes and ensure providers are “caring for kiddos and not worrying about administration any more than they need to.”
ECE is also creating a work plan to implement the auditor general’s recommendations.
“We intend to work closely with our partners on what that work plan will look like and make sure that we’re bringing it to committee as well,” said Cleveland, “so that we’re very transparent and also accountable to how we’re going to respond to each of these recommendations.”
