Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The financial plight of non-government organizations, or NGOs, is a matter that received considerable attention in the pre-budget consultations that your committees undertook this past fall, and has been an item of fair frequency in our debates here.
Mr. Speaker, I would say that if it were not for the NGO sector, the quality of life in the NWT would be seriously diminished. They are at work across all of our sectors: economic, in the arts, environment, sports and social. It is especially in the social environment where the public of the NWT really feels and sees their impacts.
Mr. Speaker, our government supports many NGOs through program delivery. The Canadian Mental Health Association, the YWCA, the Literacy Organization, Sport North, and the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre are just a few examples. But, Mr. Speaker, project funding is all too often arranged only on a year-to-year basis. Very often, these NGOs have a great deal of difficulty attracting and keeping qualified, trained staff because they just can't be certain of their cash flows.
Mr. Speaker, this government should be looking at, or is right now looking at, tax adjustments for both large and small businesses. This is fine. But I think we need to pay similar attention to the plight of our NGOs if our citizens are to continue to benefit from the calibre and the reliability of services that these NGOs are delivering on behalf of our government.
A salary survey by the YWCA, Mr. Speaker, shows that there can be as much as a $30,000 a year difference between a job performed in that organization as to one hired by our government. That is a huge discrepancy, Mr. Speaker. Something that we have got to be looking at more and more seriously is the consistency, the stability and the sustainability of our service agreements with non-government organizations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause