Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow-up to my Member's statement on the end of operations of Volunteer NWT.
Given that the voluntary sector is a key player in helping us develop and maintain healthy communities, I was sad to hear that Volunteer NWT, which is a champion for the sector, is shutting down operations due to limited and/or no funding from the GNWT. In the past the GNWT has supported them and has provided some funding. Now it appears that they've cut them completely off.
My question is to the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs. I'm curious, specifically, given the strategic plan of this Legislative Assembly, how is it that MACA has decided that the sector no longer warrants some financial support, given that they are our partners in helping us develop some financing framework in the sector?
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think, first of all, we should be clear on who has cut funding to Volunteer NWT. We never did provide any core funding to Volunteer NWT. We had an arrangement with the federal government and Volunteer NWT to be partners on a number of initiatives. The core funding came through the federal government’s funding sources. A couple of years ago that funding lapsed and was not going to be renewed. Our investment in Volunteer NWT was on specific small initiatives.
Where that is actually true, in the past, is the feds had provided money. The feds, in their wisdom, had actually cut the money last year, and the GNWT stood up and helped support the voluntary sector through the Volunteer NWT. Regardless of whether the feds are doing it or not, they play an incredibly important role in the Northwest Territories, which has clearly been acknowledged through our strategic plan.
I'd like to ask the Minister to commit to meeting with Volunteer NWT and working out some form of financial arrangement that will help them sustain their existence and continue to do the good work that they do on behalf of the people in the Northwest Territories.
We have been meeting with Volunteer NWT as recently as last week, or several weeks ago at least. The dollars that were provided to Volunteer NWT was $50,000. That money was to be used to explore new and other sources of revenue for that organization, as we indicated to them that we were not in a position to core fund them or pick up where the federal government cut the funding. So those dollars were provided to them. I don't believe we have seen a report of what they have found. Our information tells us that Volunteer has decided to wind up their organization as they haven't been able to identify any new sources.
From the government's standpoint we still think that there is a lot of merit in having an organization or a good support system in place, and we want to continue moving towards that. The Premier has mentioned that there should be a review or more investment or discussion in this area. We'd like to do that. First of all, we have to get our house in order. We are also expecting to have further discussions with the Building Our Future Committee to see where we can play a role in supporting Volunteer NWT and the volunteer sector.
However, having said that, we still have our own initiatives that we'll continue to fund. We have dollars in our budget, providing it gets approved, to do our own initiatives that support volunteers.
I'm quite happy to hear that the department is willing to work with the sector. I think that's great. It's great that they understand the value and hope to work with, but on the other side, they turn around and say, “But we're not giving you any money.”
The sector actually has gone out and has found some money. I indicated it in my Member's statement. They also have a great relationship with Sport North, which helps them with some infrastructure and whatnot. So they still do require some operating funds from time to time. As an example, the board consists of members from all over the Northwest Territories who are coming together to put together a common message and a common theme on the voluntary sector, which includes those pure-volunteer organizations as well as NGOs, and trying to work with the government to find a solid finance framework that will ensure health of the sector as a whole. So as champions, they are incredibly important, and I think we're missing the point.
I would once again like to encourage the Minister to dig in and to see if there's any opportunity to find some additional funds. They're not asking for a lot of money at this point in time but some money to help with their basic operation.
As indicated, we still have a considerable amount of time to deal with a number of issues that are not, maybe, at the top of our list, as some Members would like to see.
The volunteer sector and Volunteer NWT, I think, are two separate issues at this point. We are still investing in the volunteer sector. We don't have any money to provide core funding to Volunteer NWT. We would like to take a step back and start looking at this issue and look at all the issues of interest to the volunteer sector and make sure that each department across the government is involved and that we provide appropriate leadership. We would like to be able to work with the Building Our Future Committee and look at ways we can identify resources and start funding some of these priorities in the volunteer area.
Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again that all sounds great. Unfortunately, it also sounds like you're going to be doing to the voluntary sector what you're occasionally doing to us, which is telling them what you're going to do, rather than working with them.
Volunteer NWT is a central organization, a champion for all these groups, and would be a great group to engage and involve in conversation to help set a direction that's going to be acceptable to all the groups that are out there.
If you're not going to give them money, will you at least meet with Volunteer NWT and find some way to engage the actual individuals who are the champions for the sector as a whole? I think it's not the right answer, but at least we could find some way to engage them. If there's no money, we have no choice, but will you engage the individuals involved?
That's something that we have been doing on a fairly regular basis in the last while, trying to find ways to support Volunteer NWT. We have been meeting with their executive.
Our information is that they have since dissolved their organization. To bring in the board and representatives from across the Northwest Territories is going to be a very extensive undertaking. At this point we don't have the resources to do that. We'd like to bring people from across the North to talk about volunteerism and to see how we can improve our system and support. However, until we identify the resources and come up with a plan, we are not going to be able to do that.
We will commit to seeing if there's any desire from…. I'm not sure there's an organization to meet with anymore, but we can commit to contacting at least the former members.
Mr. Speaker, we did not kill the organization. We never had any support dollars for core funding. That was the responsibility of the federal government.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
