Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up from my Members statement, I actually wanted to get this question in yesterday, but I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to the funding this government worked on getting for prevention and promotion through our most recent budget session on operations.
Has all of the funding been allocated for what we fought for in terms of prevention and promotion activities? Has that funding been allocated, and if not, what is the exact number of dollars that still has to be allocated in this fiscal year for prevention and promotion programming? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi Cho Mr. Speaker. That money has not been allocated; however, we are close to determining exactly where that money will go. We are going to wait for the completion of both the 10-year framework on early childhood development and the Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness to determine where we feel the best places to allocate this money. The money, the majority of it will be going into those to action plans and also some of it will be going directly to NGOs. Thank you.
Yesterday the Minister made a Minister’s statement, and he does say that he’s waiting for the Early Childhood Development and Anti-Poverty strategies to come forward, but he says, “I will not wait until that response is finalized to take action.” So the sooner the better. We can’t wait to start providing programs.
You have heard a lot of really good options, a lot of good suggestions on this side of the House, what’s happening in Hay River, what’s happening in rural and remote communities. I’d like to ask the Minister, would he look at creating an application-based program with the funding dollars, which I am not sure how much that is. I did ask that question. Would the Minister look at creating an action-based program with some of these dollars that have not been allocated for some NGOs, so that they can start doing some of these programs like introduction and promotion and education and awareness? Thank you.
The Department of Health and Social Services and the health and social service authorities jointly fund about 50 NGOs to the tune of about $14 million. In that, about 30 to 35 of those could be working in the healing and prevention field, like, where it funds some youth organizations, some healing organizations and community governments. So within that we are capable of moving some of this prevention money directly into those organizations, whether they be NGOs that specifically do healing, or youth, or community governments that could do that as part of their functions. Thank you.
Just for clarity, I’d like to ask the Minister how he is going to fund those organizations, NGOs. Specifically, is it going to be an application-based program, is it going to be something new, or is it going to be something that’s built on something like the Health Promotion Fund? Can he be more specific on how these organizations can apply for this extra funding, and if he can still answer part of my first question, which was how much of these dollars have not been allocated for this fiscal year yet that we still have on the budget? Thank you.
Currently, specific to that additional $1.6 million that was allocated, none of that money is allocated. Although it’s targeted, it has not been allocated to any specific project. The majority of the money that will flow, in addition to the money that is already flowing, will probably be added to the NGO contribution policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
One million six hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money for our NGOs and our small communities. Would the Minister, going back to I think it was my second question, look at creating an application-based program specific? We have a lot of application templates out there. Would he create something new where we can start funding things like kids sport, friendship centres, youth centres, or hamlet organizations? Would he look at creating something new in the amount of, say, maybe $25,000 application so that communities can actually get a little extra dollars to run some great programs and services?
As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, the majority of our foster kids, the reason they’re in foster care is due to neglect, which is something that I feel this government needs to address very strongly. Thank you.
Certainly, we fund the NWT Foster Parents Coalition. We fund the various foster parents coalitions across the territory, as one example.
Yes, I think that application-based may be a good method of flowing money out and creating small contribution agreements within organizations. I think within the frameworks that we have and within the organizations that we already deal with, the majority of this money can flow, including to some of our own organizations like Healthy Families. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
