Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The program did not entail a capital plan, Mr. Speaker, at this particular time. I recognize that there may be some interest in that, but it is an area that would require substantial capital money in order to initiate programs.

Certainly if we could access the ability to look at funding mechanisms from other federal programs, if that is a possibility, then certainly we would pursue it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, would you consider assisting through either operations and maintenance or start-up funds so community groups could take on this much-needed endeavour and get the seed money to get the program started and then, eventually, look at the other capital dollars elsewhere? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is a very good suggestion and one that we can pursue, to provide some seed money. I do not know what we can do in terms of funding yet, because we have not quite tackled all the details on it. However, it is a good suggestion to provide communities with some seed money to see if they can access other funding as well for infrastructure development, or capital money for that infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister tell us roughly, does he have any idea of when he will be bringing something forward so that we can have a chance to review it?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will certainly bring it forward. As the Member knows, we have focused areas of concentration. We have it in pregnancy, birth and infancy; parenting and family supports; early childhood care and learning; and community supports.

That particular program is taking a bit of time to flush out and complete. We will be putting it before Cabinet hopefully within 60 days or so, perhaps 90 days, Mr. Speaker. Once we have done that, we want to proceed to appearances before the standing committees of this House so that we can outline and get the input of the Members for that particular program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my Member's statement from earlier this afternoon. Last April, I wrote the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services to suggest that we establish a staff position to assist NGOs to develop business plans and proposals to access not only federal program funds, but also private foundation funds. We are missing out on a tremendous amount of money each year because NGOs fail to access these programs successfully.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister responded to my suggestion and said that it would be discussed by the social envelope. Can Minister Groenewegen advise this House whether or not that discussion has in fact taken place?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, we have discussed how we can access federal dollars for NGOs in the Northwest Territories. As Mr. Dent knows, there are difficulties with this government accessing dollars under federal programs which were specified for specific target areas, because it does have an impact on our formula funding agreement with Ottawa.

We have not so much considered a staff position yet, but what we have considered is what is out there in terms of federal dollars which we as a Territory, or territorial NGOs, are not accessing. What we have asked for is a complete inventory by department to identify these kinds of fundings and how we can categorize the different criteria for accessing them.

After we have identified the magnitude or the volume of funding that may be out there, then we would attempt to assess the best way to assist northern organizations in accessing these dollars. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be absolutely clear, I was not suggesting that this government access those funds, but try and help the NGOs to access them. Knowing that perhaps $250 million is going to soon disappear with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation money, will this government move to examine whether or not we can fund such a position? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I cannot speak to the time frame for the specific funding that Mr. Dent speaks of. It is Aboriginal Healing Foundation federal dollars. Whether or not we could put a staff person in place in time to access that, I cannot say whether that would be possible.

However, if there is an NGO out there that is interested in accessing those dollars and may need some administrative support in putting together a proposal, support in terms of gathering information about the kinds of things we would like to do with that, we could provide that assistance on an ad hoc basis for now.

As I said earlier, there are all kinds of dollars out there which are available under all different kinds of scenarios, matched funding, per capita funding, funding by proposal. There are all kinds of federal dollars which we are missing out on, and I am not suggesting that as a government we should be applying for them, but perhaps we could set up the framework to facilitate other organizations to access them. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister just offered to assist the NGOs where they need it to apply for these funds. I would like to ask, can she tell us to whom NGOs should direct their requests for assistance?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Speaker, for now I would be pleased if NGOs would direct those inquiries through my office, and in turn I would identify the most appropriate source within the department who may be able to assist in preparing a proposal. Thank you.

Merci, Madam Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's offer to assist NGOs that are aware of the programs. The big problem we have is that many NGOs do not know about all the programs that are out there. Will the Minister undertake to examine this position that I proposed again, with the idea of also having someone who could advise NGOs of those programs that may be available for them to apply for funding?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.