Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whereas so this is Motion 1620(1), Appointment of Deputy Chairpersons of the Committee of the Whole.

WHEREAS Section 47(1) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act requires that there shall be two elected deputy chairpersons of the Committee of the Whole;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that the Member for Deh Cho, Sheryl Yakeleya; and, the Member for Sahtu, Daniel McNeely, are hereby chosen to be the deputy chairpersons of the Committee of the Whole.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, then, in dealing with these nonprofits who have been providing the same basic social services in our communities year after year, often for decades, to what extent does the GNWT negotiate these contracts and the terms of reference for the funding contributions collaboratively with those nonprofits? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier, who is also the Minister for Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Does the government keep any inventory of contracts for essential social services and housing that are delivered by nonprofits in our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to reflect today on the problematic way that our government funds and works with nonprofit organizations who are providing essential social services. Yesterday in Committee of the Whole, I raised the urgent situation of the Spruce Bough supportive living housing facility where the nonprofit Yellowknife Women Society is housing and providing wraparound services for 26 people with complex medical needs and addictions issues.

Ever since this facility opened its doors in 2020 with capital funding support from the feds, it's been cobbling together shortterm operational...

So this is all great news. So my final question is, will the government commit to developing a policy on how such contracts will be developed collaboratively with stable multiyear funding attached for NGOs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So that's great news. I'm also wondering does the government have a sense of how much turnover there is amongst the nonprofits who are actually taking on these contracts for essential social services and housing? So another way (audio) same question might be are there lots of different NGOs available and willing to take on these contracts, or is it the same ones over and over again doing this year after year consistently? If that makes sense. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I was saying there's a difference between throwing chunks of funding haphazardly for community events and throwing shortterm chunks of funding haphazardly to keep roofs over peoples' heads. And so I don't want to stand here and plead with the government to have a heart and please donate money to these heroic organizations because that's part of what got us into this mess thinking that we can just offer charity when we have extra money in our pockets. I'm asking this government to think practically about what services our residents expect and how we can make longer term plans to collaborate...

Yeah, and I understand this may not be able to be resolved today, but I think it speaks to sort of a dilemma we have that, you know, this is this is not a new initiative or like a temporary initiative. It's at the moment keeping 26 people housed that otherwise would be on the street and yeah, I guess I'll leave that for now but just wanting to put out that in the future I think we need to reconsider how we fund services like this, that I think we would all agree are essential and sometimes we do inhouse and sometimes contract out but very much take for granted that there are volunteers and...

Okay. That's all the questions I have at this moment for around Education, Culture and Employment. I assume they'll be an opportunity to return when we get to other departments if okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So my question is around funding for early learning and child care. I know that the department is still trying to work out a new funding mechanism for early childhood partners and that will require some upfront payments to child care providers by the end of the first quarter. And so given that my understanding is that this is still not settled yet, the new funding mechanism is in flux, can the government give us any reassurance of how they know that the estimates here will be enough to make sure that we can keep our child care providers operating and afloat given that the...