Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I spoke about the NWT SPCA and the critical and vital services that they provide to 31 of our communities in the Northwest Territories. I'd like to start by asking the Minister: does the Minister understand the degree of these services and believe that the NWT SPCA plays a critical role in providing these services to 31 communities in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and yes, I do agree with that statement and that the SPCA does play an important role throughout the Northwest Territories in managing dog control. In Inuvik, we have a very active SPCA group as well that does a lot of good work in the region and for the communities. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I do have to say that I do believe that our community governments also have to play a very important role in terms of managing dog-control issues that are local to the communities and that we all have got to work together to address the issue that the Member has raised in his statement.
I appreciate the Minister's comments, and most certainly every community government has a responsibility to manage dog control and loose pets. I'm not sure that that actually falls onto the responsibilities of any SPCA organization. That said, Mr. Speaker, the NWT SPCA has had a number of repeated attempts to apply for funding to the Government of the Northwest Territories, and it seems like they've been either rejected or we can't find a spot for them every time. I'd just like to ask the Minister: why does the SPCA continue to get rejected for support?
As the Member noted in his statement, the GNWT has provided the SPCA with one-time funding back in 2018. I appreciate the Member bringing this up, and we did respond late last year in terms of some of the questions that he's bringing up again today. I am not aware or certain of any of the areas or departments where the SPCA has applied for funding. Unfortunately, through my department, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, we don't currently offer any funding programs that would either offer core funding to the SPCA, nor do we currently see any fit with other application-based programs that we offer funding for any kind of one-time funding.
The SPCA was told last year that, in order to qualify for NGO stabilization funding, an NGO based in Yellowknife had to already be receiving $50,000 in government funding. What kind of funding would that be? What departments might that come from? Can the Minister maybe suggest programs that the SPCA might qualify for to unlock that funding? I mean the SPCA might be happy to receive that funding and not require stabilization funding if they knew where it was and how they could access it.
In most cases, the organizations that do apply for and receive funding through the NGO Stabilization Fund are receiving core funding through social envelope departments such as the Department of Health and Social Services, in some cases Education, Culture and Employment. Really, in most cases, these are programs aimed at providing direct support for our residents across the Northwest Territories, through my department, Municipal and Community Affairs. As I mentioned, right now, we don't see any type of funding programs that would offer any type of core funding to the organization in question.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You can clearly see now the reason why I'm trying to bring this to the floor and draw a little bit more attention to this because, with respect, it just continues to sound like the organization and/or this government is finding a way to say no again to this organization. It's clear that the SPCA needs support to sustain their services. As the demand grows, so does its operating costs. The city and businesses and individuals are all making contributions, but the GNWT does not. Will the Minister commit to finding funds to support the operations of the NWT SPCA?
I really appreciate the work that the SPCA does throughout the Northwest Territories as well as our local SPCA groups in the communities where they do the work. I've also mentioned this is also the responsibility of our community governments, our municipal governments. We will be working with them. I can be prepared to provide my support in terms of speaking with the NWT Association of Communities. We will be having a meeting coming up this month, and I know this has been an issue for the Member and the SPCA, as well. I will make sure that this topic will get addressed at the next NWT Association of Communities, and I would provide my support for the SPCA to look at getting support from our municipal and community governments at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
