Thank you. That $650,000 in 2021 actuals for multisport games has actually just been restated. That funding for that purpose has been moved to the physical activity and sport fund. And it's the actual that it's been moved to the lottery fund, and that's actually where the multisport games are funded out of since the fund was created. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just want to as well echo what my colleagues from Yellowknife had said, is that and, you know, these are mental health dollars as far as I'm concerned as well. You know, we're coming out of a pandemic and, you know, we know that there's there's issues out there. And, you know, when I look at this COVID relief funding and, you know, it's not there anymore and now is when we actually need it to, you know, promote sports and get people back back, you know, playing hockey, skiing, you know, jogging, whatever, biking, you name it. And, you know, it this money here, you know, it's not a lot but it goes a long ways. It impacts education. It impacts health. And, you know, it builds selfesteem. It does all does all those things. And for some reason, we sort of put it on the back burner and I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's because most of us are older and we're this you know, a quiet and lifestyle and, you know, don't see exercise as important. But it is. So I would just and I'm just going to make a comment here too. So and I don't need any answers or anything. I just want to make sure that the department knows how important, you know, sports, recreation and youth are. And the know the Minister knows that already. And I would just like them to, you know, give it a little bit more emphasis, and especially in the especially in the like, in the small communities where there's not a lot to do, and we got to make sure that, you know, they have access to to what we take for granted in you know, in Yellowknife, in Hay River, in Fort Simpson, in the big communities. Like, you know, we got some nice facilities there. You know, we've got a lot more people to to volunteer and, whereas the smaller communities, they don't they don't have that luxury. So I think that, you know, when we're looking at these numbers, we got remember all that and just the impact that it has on the lives of people that we're trying to those are the people that we're trying to, you know, set on a path of where they're going to take you know, take over from us. They're going to be the school teachers. They're going to be the trades people. And lawyers, doctors, you name it. So yeah, so more of a comment and I know the Minister is I don't have to preach to the converted. So thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
At risk of sounding like a broken record, I do echo my colleague's comments around the importance of sport. I know I played sport a lot as a child, various ones, and I yeah, I can't stress the importance of it.
I do have a question, though, besides just saying how wonderful all this is.
I note that in the that we have the Nongovernment Organization Stabilization Fund, and we see this one we see a general one, and this one is one geared towards sports, youth, and rec. It hasn't had an increase over the last while, and I'm just wondering would these organizations have been able to apply for the funding under the COVID relief funding? Is that why that number didn't rise in the 20212022 to sort of help them with COVID? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
All right. Could the Minister speak to what are those nongovernment organizations that do are affected by the stabilization fund and why they did they need to see more funding during COVID and not get it? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
So for the groups that are NGOs, it's applicationbased. They apply, and we were able to give them funding. If the Member is looking specifically for I think she's looking for specifically the groups that access it. We can get you that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I appreciate that commitment from the Minister. I would like to see those organizations. I've spoke often about how I think NGOs do better with their money than maybe some of the departments do. So I this is an area where I hope that when we come back in a year that we are going to see more money here.
And I guess then, though, the question is, before I ask you for more money for it, is this fund usually fully subscribed? Is it one that is undersubscribed? Oversubscribed? Do we add more money as needed from other areas, or do we cap it? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
My understanding from all of the briefings and that, it's all it's always been allocated every year. Is there a bigger demand than we have? Some years, yes. Some years, we've we meet our needs with the money we have in there presently. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I mean, again, I'll just reiterate that I would support adding more money here in coming years even now but I know we're probably past that stage.
How does this money work with other funding under, say, Health and Social Services for wellness and things? Can organizations access this pot, then access Health and Social Services pots, access housing pots? Are they able to pool that money, or is it pretty specific? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Yeah.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
It was not a yes or no question. I think you were nodding yes to the earlier part so and I see you nodding now. So I appreciate that.
Again, I look at some of this, and I see funding, Get Active NWT, not very much money. Is there a reason that we have to have these all sort of separated out like this? I'm not advocating for less detail than people want but if there's one pot and there's one application and there's one it seems like maybe we could cut down on some of this administrative stuff because they're perhaps they all kind of are with the same goal. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
So these pots of monies were developed for specific projects and that. But we can go look back at this but right now, we have earmarked for certain projects that under each title. But we can go back and look at this. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister or Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess that this is sort of again one of those areas where I think we need to shift our thinking. And rather than having a pot of money because we want to make this type of organization be able to put on an event, but instead we looked at these kinds of pots of money of, like, this is small community money; this is regional centre money; this is Yellowknife money. Everybody knows upfront what everybody's getting and then we allow the organizations within that that definition to then decide how they're spending their money themselves, whether that be an event, whether that be a sports meet. I don't really think the nature of the event really warrants a different administrative task. And maybe I'm wrong. But I think that is something that perhaps could ease some of the burden from particularly small communities of always having to apply for government funding or the onus being put back on them that well, there's money out there; what do you mean, you didn't get it? Like you know, and again, I come back to this government being a little bit it's difficult to find information and you don't know what you don't know and you can't ask questions that you don't know you should be asking sometimes. And I think we're burdening our small communities and our regional centres probably with unnecessary paperwork. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Member for Monfwi.
I see there's seven positions here that's for sports and recreations, active positions, and they're all located in headquarters, and there's six other regions. Any position is open and and is important for us, especially in the small communities in the regions where there's not too many employment. I think these positions, seven positions, or you know, like, one for each regions here there's six regions besides Yellowknife would be better utilized in the regions where because it's working with youth, and we working with youth volunteers. I see the budget has increased, not, you know, much, but as there's an increase in there. So is there any plan in the future to move to to move some those positions to the regions?
Minister of MACA.
Thank you. No. We have five regional positions out there. Well, we have ten right now. But we're looking at relocating five EMOs. But we have those positions out in the regions right now. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Can you repeat that again?
Minister just wait for your mic, Member for Monfwi. Minister, would you repeat your answer.
Okay, so no, we're not looking at relocating those seven positions from headquarters, but we do have regional positions presently in the regional offices. Thank you.
Thank you.
Like, regional superintendent? I know there's three positions in Tlicho region. What I'm talking about is the sports and recreation position is very important for many of the regions. Just like my colleague here, they you know, they talked about it, the importance to especially for youth, and we need to keep our youth active and busy, you know, to so that they don't, you know, get into trouble or, you know, in the communities. So I think those positions, I believe that we should have more positions in the communities, in the regions, especially from this seven. I don't know what they do here, but there's seven positions. I would like to see those positions being transferred to the regions. There's six regions besides headquarters. We can you know, they will be utilized well. They will be you know, and they're going to be working with the volunteers and youth. Because I serve four communities, and some of my colleagues, they serve four or five communities as well. So I think I would like to see that in the future, that these positions that deals with youth and recreation through sports be transferred to the communities. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Thank you. So each region has a regional recreation development officer or a position in the region. So North Slave has one. The South Slave has one. The Deh Cho has one. The Sahtu has one. And the Inuvik region has one. So we have regional positions out there that work with the youth and sport and rec positions. These are headquarters functions to do with territorial and national activities. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
I just want to tell you again, Tlicho region is not part of North Slave region. So there's nothing in Tlicho region. I would like to see a position in Tlicho region because we have four communities that we are representing. So I would like to change that, you know, instead of North Slave, I would like to see one in North Slave region in Tlicho region, I mean. Sorry about that. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
So the position is out of Behchoko. It is in Behchoko and then in that office there. So we had two but we're moving one to EMO, but the position is in out of Behchoko. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Well, I will follow up with that and check because I know there is a regional superintendent position that's in the community. So, but I there's nothing for the sports and recreation, and I know that we work with Yellowknife on that. So I'll follow up. I'll check. I'll talk to the deputy minister after. Thank you.
Thank you. No further questions, Member for Monfwi? Okay, thank you. Sorry, I cut off Member for Great Slave. I didn't think she had a question. She still had a minute and a half left on the clock. So I'll give it back for a minute and a half to finish up her questions. The regional, I think it was. So you can reask it again.
I appreciate that. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I just want to actually reiterate the question I was asking. I don't have anything further after that. It's just what would be the barriers I'll frame it better.
What would be the barriers to the options I suggested around changing the way the funding is set up? So is there a specific reason, say, from where the money is coming from federally that we couldn't go to more of a model where it's small community/regional centre/Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you. One of the barriers could potentially be just, you know, there's there is quite a bit of demand for sport, rec, and youth funding. And even just the wide variety of activities that we're able to support with our budget, for example, you know, like a high performance athlete, and the the funds that we that we provide for that purpose, like, you know, just even their training needs, is just so, so different from, you know, funding to communities to, you know, here's $10,000 for how you can help seniors get active. Like, there's such a wide range of projects and types of events that we do fund through this. So we just want to ensure that we continue to fund those activities because communities have previously told us that that's what they the activities that they would like supported. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further questions, Member for Great Slave?
