Debates of October 17, 2006 (day 9)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker…(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, we need to support our youth who face many challenges today. We need to help them to live up to their expectation that we have for them. We need to give youth positive experience that can make them our future leaders. Youth centres with meaningful activities and programs will be an important step towards that support.

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for Youth. The Minister recognizes that there is a problem that there is only money to build youth centres and no money to run or operate the centres. What will the Minister do to solve these issues or problems that we’re faced with? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for Youth, Mr. McLeod.

Return To Question 102-15(5): Operations Funding For Youth Centres

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of years we’ve been working hard in the department to expand our youth programs. Last year we were able to expand our program funding by another half a million dollars to run a number of pilot projects. We have a number of projects that have been very successful. Over this last while, a lot of communities have been applying for the Community Initiatives Program, which has a budget of $1 million to use towards building and constructing of infrastructure and these have included youth drop-in centres or youth centres. We’ve encouraged communities to do that and we’ve supported it because most of these communities have identified sources for operation and maintenance and the bulk of the money is coming from the federal government. We have, I think, six communities right now that are being currently funded through the Youth Centre Funding Program. The community that the honourable Member is mentioning has not applied for this funding. We’d gladly work with him to apply for these dollars. However, we do not, as a government, have a program dedicated towards the operation and maintenance of youth centres. We have identified it as something that there may be a need to address. We have scheduled a youth conference for January of this year. This is one of the subjects that we’d like to talk about, is some of the needs that communities across the North will be focused on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 102-15(5): Operations Funding For Youth Centres

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker…(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I’ve outlined in my Member’s statement that prevention is less costly than healing. Prevention also creates healthier communities and committed community members, eventually becoming the community leaders. At this point, Mr. Speaker, has the Minister made his point to the social envelop colleagues who are well aware of the cost of justice, health treatment programs, when we don’t take steps to prevent youth crimes or encourage healthy lifestyle choices who could be faced with more major issues and problems in the communities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 102-15(5): Operations Funding For Youth Centres

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if I heard a question in there. We have certainly agreed with some of the principles that were mentioned by the honourable Member regarding prevention. We have a number of programs that are earmarked towards the youth at risk. We are also looking at ways we could encourage our youth to become good leaders, good role models. We’ve started a number of programs that encourage that and we continue to work with our youth in setting up conferences where they can speak up and have their voices heard. We’ve also embarked on setting up a Youth Ambassador Program that we’ll be kick starting this year as the Canada Winter Games come forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 102-15(5): Operations Funding For Youth Centres

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker…(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I understand the fiscal circumstance of the GNWT, what we’re faced with today. The GNWT has to stop using these circumstances, Mr. Speaker, as an excuse for not taking care of future generations. When it comes to these issues, there’s always the money and the program dollars where there’s a shortage. So, Mr. Speaker, if youth are a priority for this government, can the Minister commit to finding money within, or from the federal government, for the operation of youth centres in Behchoko and in other smaller communities for this coming fiscal year? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 102-15(5): Operations Funding For Youth Centres

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’d gladly work with the community of Behchoko to look at identifying the resources that that community needs. There is already some resources that we can, upfront, identify that has not been tapped into. There’s a number of other program dollars that we have that are available for the community to apply for through the youth core for some youth at risk programs. We also have youth contributions. We also have a youth advisor. We have trapper training programs and this year we’ve launched a website that will be coming on stream this fall. That can be certainly a resource that can be used for referral. So, Mr. Speaker, we’ll work with the community to identify the resources. We still continue to move forward in our discussions with the federal government to see what other commitments we can obtain from them to support youth centres. There are dollars currently in the federal budget for youth centres, but only through the National Association of Friendship Centres. So this causes concern in other communities that don’t have a friendship centre. So we have to continue to do more work in that area. Thank you.