Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The cost of living continues to rise across the North. Flying in and out of our communities are expensive. It cannot prevent our youth from accessing sport opportunities in Inuvik or further south.
Can the Minister explain what funding supports are provided to territorial sport organizations and organizations like BDSRA given the impacts of inflation; is there any increases on that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister responsible for MACA.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we give about $1.561 million to TSOs to provide opportunities for youth and that. For the BDSRA, I believe it was $250,000 we talked about it in the last sitting here. But I'll have to get back to the Member for the confirmation of that number. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, getting our kids out of the communities for sports tournaments and training camps are huge. We need it for our youth.
Can the Minister give us some background on current funding available for teams looking to travel from the communities to larger centres in sporting events; is there any funding available that they could access right through MACA? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do give funding to the BDSRA and then the BDSRA gives that funding to the community. So there is an applicationbased money allocated from the BDSRA for the communities to do that. Again, it doesn't give all the money that they need, but it's similar to the Mackenzie Rec Association that does the same thing in the southern part of the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is doing to ensure the education authorities have access like, I brought up in the House before that we want a big regional tournament in Inuvik with nine Beaufort Delta communities all participating such in sports like, you know, hockey, curling, Arctic sports, Dene games, and they have a swimming pool in Inuvik. Some of those kids never get to see that swimming pool from the communities I represent. Is there any possibility that the Minister and the department can ensure that if we don't give that money to the education, Beaufort Education Council, and keeping it in MACA, I'm wondering if the Minister and this government would step up to the plate and put our youth first and give monies to do something like this sporting event which was done in other years in this legislature? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have the afterschool physical activity program that the Member talks about. That there goes to the schools and communities depending on who organizes the afterschool programs. What the Member is talking about is regional events, and that was done and organized by the Beaufort Delta sport recreation Beaufort Delta Sahtu Recreation Association. Unfortunately, that organization defaulted. It's now talking to some of the leaders in the communities, especially the rec coordinators are trying to reactivate that, and that there does help develop the swim meets, the regional ball tournaments, hockey tournaments. But I can tell you right now that they have been working on one in Fort McPherson. They're actually working on a regional hockey tournament. This happened recently. They were working on that, and they're starting to work on those same types of opportunities, and they're getting money through the BDSRA, and we at MACA have given that money to them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I still feel our communities that we represent are penalized because of where we live, in this government. Our youth don't have we have afterschool sports in the community. No opportunities for those students to go to regional sporting events until they're older. Why can't this government step up to the plate and this Minister just give the funding that we ask for and put it in the budget? I mean, they always say youth are our future. They're so good at that. But nothing, nothing to back it up. They say and they put it all on the communities for the community mayors and everybody to stress out, to provide these sporting events for youth, when we should be doing it ourselves out of this place and supporting our youth, all youth across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I totally agree with the Member youth are our future. That's our commitment, though. If you look at recreation funding, which is $825,000, we give that out there. We also give $450,000 to youth and child resiliency. We also give $400,000 for the regional sporting events. We also give youth contributions of $225,000. We also do $500,000 for youth court. So we do put money into that. We also then have the Mackenzie Recreation Association and the BDSRA, when we put money to them, and they provide to the programs there. I'm more than willing to work with the Member. I'm willing to work with the organizations, whether it's NWTAC however we can work together to get this. As for the budgeting process, we are going through negotiations. We have a budget that we submit, and we are in the process of negotiating that right now, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
