Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last few years, there has been a lot of controversy and concern over NWT sport administration. With the Arctic Winter Games held in Whitehorse a few months ago, and the many competitions leading up to those opening ceremonies, and with all the publicity around our Arctic Winter Games athletes, the media and the public have recently expressed views and opinions on our sport governance system.
There is no question that some regions and some communities of the NWT feel hard done by when compared to Yellowknife, but just what they need to fix the problem is still hotly debated. A recent editorial from the Northern Journal, a Fort Smith-based newspaper said, “The SRC, Sport and Recreation Council, has grown with substantial staff and a budget today of about $8 million annually. There is still little improvement to the delivery of sport and recreation in the communities.”
The NWT Sport and Rec Council was established in 2005 to address that very problem: concerns from communities and volunteers around equitable access to sport resources, both financial and human. Now some seven years later, the problem still exists. In fact, not only are the communities unhappy, but so is Yellowknife. Instead of efficiencies and streamlined operations, we have simply added another administrative layer to our sport administration system. The five member organizations of the SRC compete for dollars to deliver similar programs to our youth and our territorial sport organizations.
Volunteers are more burdened than ever with administrative work. In many cases, they now have to apply to two organizations for funding instead of one. About two years ago the SRC embarked on an ambitious strategic planning exercise which cost about $200,000. There was hope that streamlining would occur, that the SRC member organizations would identify their areas of expertise, target their efforts and avoid duplication in programming. But that was not to be. Parties could not agree and the process was terminated. To date, there has been neither a report nor any recommendations from that exercise, at least none that have been made available to the public.
The SRC continues to grow. There is now a staff of eight and an $8 million budget. How much of that $8 million is going to the administration of sport instead of to our NWT youth programs? To quote the Northern Journal once again, “There are two problems with all of this. The first is the lack of leadership from the Legislature; the second is the misguided approach of government where the solution is to keep creating more government.”
It is time the GNWT got serious about the effectiveness of our sport delivery system. We will lose our volunteers, our organizers, coaches and managers if we don’t. As usual, when that happens, NWT youth will be the losers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
