Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the NGO Stabilization Fund. Through the process, there was a review and there were no changes at that time.
I want to ask the Premier, in regard to this fund, will the department again look at reviewing this NGO Stabilization Fund in light of what he is hearing today, to ensure that some of these programs, some of these fundings can get to some of the critical services that some of our people are delivering now on a voluntary basis in our communities?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; we reviewed the NGO Stabilization Fund to clarify which types of NGOs were eligible to apply and also to respond faster, to process the applications faster and flow the money out on a much faster basis. We were able to do that. This year we have had 14 applications. Thank you.
Certainly, the Premier is correct on the NGOs delivering essential services in our communities that support the government’s objectives of healthy, strong communities and also developing capacities, and to manage programs and services.
I want to ask the Minister, in regard to the review, the society sometimes needs to be in good standing or needs to be registered within the Northwest Territories are created under a federal statute. I want to ask if the Minister can look at the flexibility of this eligibility of NGOs to include groups like land claims or other groups that also do essential services because of a lack of volunteers or people to fulfill those critical services to our people. Would the Minister continue looking at, seeing if this is a possibility in some of the small communities?
Essentially what our government wants to do is we want to help NGOs that have no other access to funding. I would think land claims organizations negotiate land claims agreements with other governments and they have access to resources. I would think skidoo clubs were the same; they could access resources. We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that funding the NGO Stabilization Fund is focused on those NGOs that provide essential services to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Under the land claims, not all the land claims have a golden pot waiting for them to fund certain programs. There are permitted activities in the land claim that would also allow them to service some of the activities in the communities such as programs and school programs and such, so they don’t have the ready, available funds at times. That is why I am asking the Premier if he would look at this review again to see if it makes sense within the communities in the land claims that help the people through these activities that are allowed in the land claim chapters.
It sounds like the Member is focusing only on the NGO Stabilization Fund when the NGO Stabilization Fund is just a fund to top up funding to NGOs that provide essential services for the Government of the Northwest Territories.
We have a third-party accountability framework, which is called Excellence Through Partnerships, and I think that is more appropriate to the line of questioning that you are taking. We have three categories of NGOs and I am sure that when we review it, if we get more specifics as to how or why you think land claims organizations should be funded by this government as an NGO, to see if they fit into any one of those three categories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
My focus is because these are probably one of the most efficient and effective operations that give NGOs support in our communities and the land claims is one of the biggest ones here.
I want to ask the Minister, would he also look at the eligible NGOs policy where it says if in Yellowknife you receive $50,000 or more in funding from the GNWT annually, so that’s an automatic $50,000 that goes to Yellowknife if you’re a Yellowknife NGO. So is that somewhere else where the regions can also get that type of funding automatically on an annual basis if we can make out a policy that’s equally shared across the Territories?
I want to clarify that the NGO Stabilization Fund is just a top-up fund. There are three other categories of funding that are providing funding to NGOs from all different departments. So I’m sure that if you clarify what it is that you want for land claims, we can see if it fits into one of those categories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
