Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Anything further, Mr. Moses?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Menicoche, did you wish to make a motion?

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Menicoche.

Thanks to the Minister. I’m hoping that he’s listening now as I raise this issue. I agree that certainly, and I was very pleased to see that the department has increased the contributions to volunteer organizations from $20,000 to $70,000, but without a coordinator, without a centralized person to assist organizations, they lack the ability to do the training that is needed for volunteers that allows our NGOs to do the business that they need to do for us. So if the Minister at this point, as he seems to have indicated that $50,000 is not available to reinstitute Volunteer NWT, what can the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 1-17(2), Interim Appropriation 2012-2013, and would like to report progress with two motions being adopted. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Municipal and Community Affairs and I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement. Since Volunteer NWT folded, I think most non-profit and non-government organizations in the NWT have found it much more difficult to do their job. They have volunteer boards and they have less volunteers to work with. I think it’s been a loss to all of the NWT in the fact that they can’t provide the same services to the effectiveness that they could before when Volunteer NWT was alive and well.

I’d like to ask the Minister, I noted on...

Question is being called.

---Carried

So, item number 11, Transportation, $29.848 million, is deferred. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the GNWT departments are developing their business plans right now, I want to comment today on the importance of volunteers and volunteer groups, and I want to comment on the need for adequate funding for this most valuable human resource.

The GNWT seems to recognize the value of volunteers. We had a 2005 Declaration on Volunteering and a Volunteer Support Initiative. We all recognize the importance of volunteers, at least we should. The work of Northerners in the voluntary sector touches us daily. Volunteers and volunteer groups build communities through their work...