Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I'd like to stand and speak to the plight of our non-government organizations to continually have to fight for money year after year. Mr. Speaker, we're talking a lot of first-contact groups in the communities that deal with a lot of the social issues. They're the first people that a lot of people seeking help will go to and they're usually the last in the pecking order as far as handing out money goes, and that's not fair to them, Mr. Speaker. They provide an essential service to residents and they should not have to worry every year whether they're going to get their money or not, or whether they're going to get it on time. A lot of these agencies have boards and they're being dictated as to how they're supposed to spend their money. Boards really don't have much authority over how they spend their money. The funding agency, the people that give them the money, will tell them how to spend it and that's not fair to these organizations, Mr. Speaker.
They do provide, like I said, an essential service and it's hard work. You think it's eight hours a day but, in most cases, it's not; it's 24/7. A lot of these people do their work with a lot of passion, with a good heart, and they believe strongly in what they do. To have to put these people and the NGOs through this every year is really not fair to them, Mr. Speaker.
It's time that we had a look at all the non-government organizations that run a good organization, and look at having some multi-year funding for them so they can concentrate on the work at hand, Mr. Speaker, and not have to worry about the finances.
They do provide, as I said, an essential service, a much needed service. It's a service that I think as we go further down the road here, we're going to find that more and more residents need these services a lot more. So this government, Mr. Speaker, should do our part in ensuring that all they have to worry about is providing the service to the people and not have to worry about their financing every year. Thank you.
---Applause
