Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask some questions to the Premier, who is also the Minister for the Executive, and I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement. I think these questions probably fall under his duties as Minister for the Executive. I mentioned in my statement that there was a program manual that was published, I think it was last year, a program manual for managers who deal with NGOs. I’d like to know what work has been undertaken by the GNWT as a result of that program manual for managers to deal with contracts more efficiently than what seems to be happening. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have that information at hand. I will have to get that and get back to the Member. Thank you.
I think that’s the shortest answer we’ve heard from the Minister all day.
Last May I had some questions about NGOs and volunteers and so on, and Minister R.C. McLeod at the time indicated that there was work on another manual, not the manual for GNWT program managers but a manual for NGOs to help them with protocols and how they should deal with the government and so on. He was going to get back to me on that and I haven’t seen anything. So I’d like to ask the Premier if he can advise whether or not there is a manual that is being developed for NGOs to help them in their dealings with the government. Thank you.
I know there has been ongoing work around the NGO, and the stabilization of funding and the process. There have been a number of departments involved: the Executive, Finance, as well as the Minister of Community Affairs. Again, on that piece of work I’ll have to get that information from the appropriate departments and get back to the Member. Thank you.
I appreciate the commitment on the part of the Minister and I look forward to that, hopefully a little sooner than from May to October.
Members have often spoken about it, I know I’ve often spoken about it, but there is a real need for this government to provide adequate and consistent funding to our NGOs. One of the things that the government has done, that I think has been received positively with our NGOs, is to establish an NGO Stabilization Fund, and the applications, I guess, have recently been finished for that fund. It’s based on awards that are determined by our GNWT staff and I don’t have any problem with that, I have faith in the staff that are doing the work, but I do have a concern in that I don’t believe there are any terms of reference or any guidelines for staff to work with in making these awards. So I’d like to know if the Premier can tell me or if the Minister can tell me that when the staff are looking at the awarding of funds for the NGO Stabilization Fund, what criteria do they use to make those decisions. Thank you.
The criteria used, again, we’ll get that information for the Member. There is work ongoing in that Stabilization Fund. Applications did go out and I believe they’re near making decisions as to where that would go. As well, I am informed that in November of this year there will be a forum for NGOs to go through some of this work. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the commitment from the Premier to get that information. I will look forward to that.
I did ask the Premier’s office whether or not there were criteria for the NGO Stabilization Fund and the answer that I got back didn’t indicate that there were any. So I would hope if there are some that the Minister will be able to get those for me.
I have stressed the need for long-term stable funding for NGOs. The Minister references a forum that is upcoming in November and that’s good to hear. Will part of the forum discussions, deliberations, will it look at and take into account the need for our NGOs to have long-term stable funding? Thank you.
The information I have is that the forum is based on capacity building, sharing best practices, improving governance and management, and strengthening the working relationship with government departments. Thank you.
