Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to tell a bit of a sad story today. Once upon a time there were a group of seniors and elders who wanted to ensure that NWT residents stayed in the North as they aged. They wanted to ensure that our elders would be well looked after and to preserve an appropriate quality of life for all of us as we age. So they banded together and formed a society to work on their goals.
Seniors are a tenacious lot and this group was no exception. They petitioned the government-of-the-day for funding for their group and kept on petitioning until the government, bless them, realized the value of the society and granted them some money. Thus began a beautiful relationship which endures to this day.
The government and the society signed a contract, a one-year contract, and then the contract was renewed and extended for one more year, then one more year, then one more year and so on. Then at the urging of the Seniors’ Society and their MLAs, the government relented and for a brief, short time the group had a multi-year contract. For a few short years there was funding security for the society to run their programs and to know that they could keep their staff. Then the government reverted to a one-year contract and that’s where the NWT Seniors’ Society is at today. Back to square one.
The time that our NGOs have to spend negotiating and developing contracts with the government is huge. Many NGOs receive funding from more than one government department and they must have a contract with each one. The imposition on an organization, which usually has little administrative capacity to begin with, is large.
It’s time for this government to rethink how we fund our NGO partners. Why must they apply for many pots of money to accomplish their goals? I believe we should be considering multi-year core funding to provide a stable funding base for our NGO partners. If necessary, they could then make applications for program funds which are beyond their normal scope of activities.
The work, the services and the programs that NGOs do on behalf of the GNWT is invaluable and certainly could not be done as cheaply if the government were doing the same work. If we really value NGOs as much as our Ministers keep telling us, we must put our money where our mouth is and make the financial life of our NGOs easier.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
