Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I fully support that travel line, then, and I am very happy that Mr. Schauerte was able to identify that that was support for kids to be able to travel. I am fully in support of that one. I would like to have additional information on what is included in the sport and recreation line, and if there is intent, especially over the next few years while we're in a pandemic state where people are definitely staying home, to increase that line item? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to have Mr. Gary Schauerte answer the question because we did get a contribution from the federal government, as well, for sport and recreation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The sport and recreation line item, as the Member points out, does change by about $1.6 million. The federal money is not the whole answer within that line item. I would suggest that we could come back for detail to committee on that item. Certainly, I would just highlight that, again, the COVID money did go to not only community governments but to support sport organizations, as well. We could come back to the detail on that for the Member and committee. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I appreciate that and look forward to further detail on that one. The other line item that I am looking for more information on and how it relates is the youth line item. What, in addition, is included in that line item? I'm assuming that Youth Corps is included in there, and I am wondering if the Minister can provide additional information on that one.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have my department provide the additional information to the Member. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I look forward to additional information on that one. The other piece that I am wondering is: how does this Youth Corps piece relate to work being done by career advisors with ECE, and is there crossover between ECE and MACA in relation to this youth leadership programming? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister for MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, there is no crossover with Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. My knowledge of this program is limited. If I go off script a little bit, please let me know where I do. My understanding is that this is a Youth Ambassador Program where it brings together students from across all 33 of our communities who are interested in leadership and gives youth an opportunity to get to know one another and also to work on leadership projects together. This seems like a really key area for us to be able to find out from youth more information about the state of education, how to support people in communities through education, and it seems like a great place to have some crossover between growing opportunities for students in small communities as well as creating opportunities for post-secondary. I am wondering if the Minister will commit to having a meeting with her colleague from Education, Culture and Employment to see how that program can both be expanded and also leveraged a little bit more. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I will have the conversation with my colleague in Education, Culture and Employment and explore the youth opportunities that he may have. Specifically, this would be for sport and recreation. I'm not too sure what Education, Culture and Employment would have for educating youth and providing opportunity. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. My understanding of that program is that it is more of a leadership program. There is a lot of community participation that goes on. Kids are tasked with picking an organization to volunteer in. There is an element in there of personal development that really goes hand-in-hand with finding out what kids want to do, finding out what their colleagues want to do. These are kids who go back to their home community; they are discussing what happened and what they learned when they were with all of these students from different communities. I think it's a great opportunity to make sure that we are, in fact, sending home mini ambassadors who are going to help lead the way for their colleagues. I think it's a great opportunity beyond sport and recreation to work with Education, Culture and Employment and make sure that we are looking at this with an unsiloed perspective. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I will be working with my colleague for the Department of ECE. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just going to piggyback a bit on what my colleague has said and again more of a comment. I feel like this is an area where I would be supportive of any sorts of increase of funding. I like what my colleague was saying about the idea of using youth and sports to act as almost sort of a mental-health-and-wellness-counsellor-type situations and the crossover that could be happening between almost all of those types of departments. When I look at the positions, there are seven across the entire territory, which makes this really quite small. It's probably one of the smallest compensation and benefits lines that we can see, so to me, like I had said to the Minister of ECE when he was up, this seems like a great way to increase employment in small communities, which is the priority of our Assembly. It seems like a way to ensure that P1s are hired, because they are the people who would be in the community; they can be leading on-the-land programs.
All of this comes back to being healthy, having healthy bodies and minds; more of a comment, Madam Chair. I just wanted to reiterate that I think that increases to the funding of any of these programs would be great, and I do also encourage the Minister to collaborate with her colleagues in order to see about crossovers of staff so it's not just somebody focused on sports, but it's a youth-care worker who is focused on sports. They provide that role anyway, so we might as well start cross-training and looking at that less siloed approach; more of a comment. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. You have no other questions? Okay. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My first question is: I believe the NGO stabilization fund used to be in EIA, and then it was moved to MACA. Previously, there was reporting every year on who receives that money. If we take any other fund like this in the NWT, there is actually usually a press release, the recipients of the poverty fund, and then we list them, or I believe GNWT does a grants and contributions report every year that shows all the SEED winners. Can I get a commitment from the Minister that we will start reporting on who gets the NGO stabilization fund money and that all of the previous years where we have not published that, I think going back to 2015, will be made public? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a list of organizations, NGOs, that have received the NGO stabilization funding. I will provide that list to the Member. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's not so much that I want it. I just believe I would like it to be publicly reported, so can I get a commitment that it will be made public? I can go look who won in 2015, where the money went, but then it just kind of fell off the map when MACA got hold of it. I am looking for public reporting. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not too sure about the reporting because I am just thinking about the privacy and whatever, but I will complete a recognition of the recipients that have received the NGO stabilization fund. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will follow up with the Minister about getting this money reported. My other question is, and this is one of the siloed issues, is that I am not really sure when I look at -- I cannot see who has received this money, but when I look at the application criteria, this fund, it seems to more be just another general place NGOs can go get money, similar to the millions of dollars we hand out across multiple departments to NGOs. I know EIA has a special executive policy where they can sometimes give money to NGOs. I really do not think that it makes sense for this government to have all these different pools that are kind of doing the same thing, and I think there is great possibility to probably roll them into one place and give all of our NGOs a little bit more stability of here is some year-to-year funding and not rely so heavily on these grant applications. I imagine, if I looked at this fund year over year, the same NGOs are getting it. That is part of the reason I want it to be publicly reported. My question is: will the Minister somehow have a conversation with Finance or EIA about how we fund NGOs and whether this is actually doing anything different from all of the various other NGO funding pools? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I will commit to providing that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just get confirmation that this section also includes all the information items for MACA? Thank you, Madam Chair. I am seeing you nodding. Can I have an update on the New Building Canada Plan, Small Community Fund? My understanding is that this fund is about 10 years old now. It was instituted by the Harper government. I see that it's about $20 million a year of municipal infrastructure funding. When will that money end? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young respond. Thank you.
Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to clarify, we have jumped out of sport and recreation, youth, into our work performed on behalf of others?
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Okay. Okay.
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[Microphone turned off] ...so each of the programs you see listed -- thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry about that. Each agreement with Canada is slightly different. The New Building Canada Plan for communities was called the Small Communities Fund. That program, construction of projects must be complete by December of 2022, and all of our reporting into Canada must be done by March of 2024. There are a number of projects in each community that were funded through this program. As I say, each one is slightly different in terms of how it was done, but that one was done through an allocation for each community. They chose the project they wanted to pursue. We had it approved by Canada, and then they received their funding to proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank, Madam Chair. My question is: are all communities on track to actually spend all of the money in the fund by 2022? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young respond. Thank you.
