Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Imagine a world free of hunger. Imagine a world free from poverty, or imagine a world free from sickness. This does sound too good to be true, but in reality, we all know that this is utopian thinking, and for the practical person in all of us, we know that the world is not free at all but suffers from quite the opposite.
To combat this reality, we count on the benevolence and stewardship of non-governmental agencies to fill the gaps where public services leave off. In essence, many NGOs are the lifeblood that complement or fulfill the delivery of care, food and wellness needed by many of our residents. A world without NGOs is like a world without oxygen. You cannot live without the other.
It strikes me as odd that today many of us here have to stand before this House and somehow play on the purse strings of the Department of Executive to urge them to change their tune. Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, as you heard from many of my colleagues, the demand for services does exceed the supply of funding. A mere $350,000 is doled out annually for a handful of lucky recipients, only to be used to soothe the pain. This funding is not for lavish, expensive sports cars. This funding is not for posh office furniture, and I can guarantee you that this funding is not for expensive executive travel to faraway lands. No, Mr. Speaker, this money is for the lights, the heat and the power, if you’re lucky.
I know we need to be stewards of the public purse, and I for one am very conscientious of our spending dollars. Yet, it pains me to see waste going on in our government, duplication of services, ivory towers of self-preservation, and yet we allow our NGOs to somehow manage with nothing. Moreover, we ask them to do the job we don’t or, in many cases, won’t.
This is not only unfair, it is not even human for us to expect such. Yet, we’ve allowed this to go on for too many years, and this must stop. There is a solution, and that solution is we have the ability to change minds. We have the ability to change hearts, and we certainly have the ability to change lives.
This change has to come from the top down. It has to come from our Premier, and it has to be supported by Cabinet. Let’s do the right thing and increase our funding for NGO stabilization, and let’s open up the doors to funding for emerging NGOs who need our support at their critical junctures.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
