Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier. Many of the non-governmental organizations, like the Tree of Peace and others, provide services or subcontracted services to accommodate residents that perhaps are not able to get them otherwise. As I mentioned, many of these workers have not had a cost-of-living or salary increase in many years. While I understand the GNWT does not fund these organizations directly, can the Premier tell me what she is doing to ensure that there is more funding for NGOs that support our communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within my department, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, as long as the budget gets approved, there is extra funding for the Status of Women and Native Women's Association that we proposed for this Assembly. Also, in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the GNWT did increase the NGO stabilization fund by actually doubling it from $350,000 to a fund of $700,000 now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad to hear that. I hope the Premier will consider doubling it again. My next question has to do with the alcohol educator program, which has had the same rate of program funding for years. Again, I understand that it is not directly funded, at times, from the GNWT. However, given the increased need for rehabilitation services that these NGOs often provide, can the Premier commit to instructing her Cabinet to increase funding to NGOs that do provide rehabilitation and after-care services?
I can't stand here and give direction to a department to actually increase their funding. Departments have various reasons why they do funding based on capacity, based on needs, based on assessments, all kinds of reasons. What I can say, though, is that I come from the NGO world before I came here, for many, many years. I hear what the Member is saying. One of the biggest things that I hated when I came in was that smaller NGOs that don't have the capacity often don't get the money. Larger NGOs that have either the capacity, or are smart enough to get MLAs on board, are actually getting increases, and that's not fair, Mr. Speaker. I brought it up in the last Assembly, and I brought it up in this Cabinet, and I will see it during this term: we need a fair, equitable model to be able to fund NGOs so it's not the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, that NGOs have a formula. That I will commit to in the term of this government.
I am really glad to hear that. I do agree that the squeaky wheel gets the grease in the North often. I do appreciate the look to make that fair across the board. One thing I often hear when speaking with NGOs is that they are in this constant loop of having to apply for project funding or funding that has a lot of restrictions or has to be used in a specific manner. Oftentimes that funding will then be removed a year or two later when the program has actually started going. It then becomes somewhere within the NGO to find the money to continue on with the works. I think a lot of that speaks to the lack of core funding for our NGOs. They probably know the best way to spend their own money. My question is: what is the Premier going to do to ensure that NGOs like the friendship centres have stable, adequate core funding to cover operating expenses and pay their staff wages given the recent cuts in her budget to friendship centres?
There's a conversation. Core funding is a sensitive topic, I understand. Core funding is something, that's an issue. Like I said, I came from the NGO world. The NGO that I was administrating got $30,000 a year core funding for 30 years, Mr. Speaker. We were feeding women hotdogs if we were lucky enough to buy them. NGOs got huge core funding. I'm not going to say that we're going to increase core funding right now. I need a formula that says, this is what's fair for NGOs, and that, I can commit to.
Kind of a second question within that is the friendship centres. Absolutely, I worry about them. They provide valuable services. What I've committed to doing is: I don't have an increase in my budget for it this year, but what I have committed to do, and I've already talked to my department, is we're going to meet with the NWT and the Nunavut Friendship Society and see if there's a way that we can actually support them to get the capacity. The original funding was to build capacity for fundraising. It wasn't to be core funding. Evidently, it worked somewhat in that they got a lot of money. Didn't work because they weren't sustainable in doing that. We're looking at other measures. Maybe, perhaps, I can second someone. We're looking at other ways that we can actually build the capacity so that they can be sustainable financially.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This might be more of a comment. I think that the Premier's comment sparks in me the thought of this conversation we keep having around the hoops everybody has to jump through and the fact that there does need to be dedication positions that are literally just there to apply for federal funding which is going to be the best method instead of all of us fighting over territorial money, which is very limited. More of a comment: I urge the Premier, if she's going to second somebody from her department, that that be their goal, is just to get more federal money. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do appreciate that comment. I do think that it should be focused on federal funding, not only, but territorially as well. It kind of gave me a hint, and so maybe, I'll be looking at that position, a position, actually, that can work with NGOs, not just the friendship centres. I'm not committing, but I heard the remark, and I'm just going to start thinking my head around that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, the Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
