Page 4-29,

information item, School of Community Government, Active Positions.

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs, Activity Summary, School of Community Government, Active Positions, information item (page 4-29), approved.

Moving along to 4-31, Activity Summary, Lands Administration, Operations Expenditure Summary: $2.980 million.

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs, Activity Summary, Lands Administration, Operations Expenditure Summary: $2.980 million, approved.

Moving along to 4-34, information item, Lands Administration, Active Positions.

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs, Activity Summary, Lands Administration, Active Positions, information item (page 4-34), approved.

Moving along to 4-35, information item, Lands Administration, Active Positions.

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs, Activity Summary, Lands Administration, Active Positions, information item (page 4-35), approved.

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wonder if there would be agreement to go back to page 4-30 briefly.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to go back to page 4…. Mr. Bromley, can you please confirm which page you wanted to go back to?

Page 4-31.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to go back to 4-31.

Unanimous consent granted.

We shall go back to page 4-31. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the area of dealing with trespassers on land, this remains a bit of a thorny issue, and I know the department has been active working on it. Unfortunately, there’s a huge role played by other governments, and it just has seemed impossible to deal with the situation, to get those other governments engaged. I am wondering if the department has considered putting a citizens’ group together, if you will, to try and deal with these lands issues that can’t be captured solely under MACA’s jurisdiction but affects all of our residents.

Minister for MACA.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is an idea that has come to us some time ago. We have put together a working group, and the members in the working group are ourselves, Municipal and Community Affairs, and the few people from Akaitcho. INAC has also joined us recently, and the city, I believe, is also part of the committee.

Thank you for that. I appreciate those remarks. It’s good to know that is out there. I was actually thinking of a citizens’ group, not necessarily wearing any hats to the table, but able to talk to each other in practical ways, rather than from their official positions, and make recommendations to help deal with this issue.

I would expect that would be something either the city or an interest group would look after. At any rate, we would expect that to be organized at a local level.

I guess that’s one way to look at it. I’m looking at it as a Member of this government that has been unsuccessful in dealing with the issue other than in a very limited way. The way in which we have full authority, we can sort of move as we can. I have been impressed with getting groups of people together that are able to look at things a little more objectively, even though they may be members of certain groups and so on. I am hoping this government would see a role for itself in some new and innovative approaches there.

Mr. Chairman,

we’re

always willing to consider any suggestions that come from the Members. I still personally think it may be a challenge to do so, recognizing that we are trying to work with other agencies, other governments, and to set up a lobby group to lobby ourselves or Indian Affairs. It may prove to cause some problems. We’ll take the recommendation, however, and see if there’s any avenue to develop this further.

Any other questions on page 4-31? If not, let’s get back to 4-34, Lands Administration, Active Positions.

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs, Activity Summary, Lands Administration, Active Positions, information item (page 4-34), approved.

Page 4-35, Lands Administration, Active Positions.

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs, Activity Summary, Lands Administration, Active Positions, information item (page 4-35), approved.

Sport, Recreation and Youth; Activity Summary; Operations Expenditure Summary: $2.504 million.

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs; Activity Summary; Sport, Recreation and Youth; Operations Expenditure Summary: $2.504 million, approved.

Page 4-39, Sport, Recreation and Youth. Mr. Abernethy.

Motion is in order. The motion is being circulated. To the motion. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A lot of Members in the House have talked a significant amount about the voluntary sector. I’ve been one of them, talking about the voluntary sector since right at the beginning of this Legislative Assembly, especially since the strategic plan. I was quite happy we did manage to get additional support into the strategic plan for the voluntary sector.

The voluntary sector in the Northwest Territories is quite diverse. It includes those pure volunteer organizations but also non-government organizations. The NWT has the second highest rate of both formal and informal volunteering in Canada. More than half — 53 per cent — of the NWT residents 15 years of age and older volunteer with a group, compared to 45 per cent of Canadians in southern Canada and other territories. Eighty per cent of the people over 15 years of age volunteer informally.

Examples of informal volunteering include activities such as helping others with housework, shopping, babysitting or paperwork. More formal things are things such as the NGOs. NWT volunteers give an average of 153 hours per year. In 2004 the contribution of NWT volunteers was equivalent to 1,553 jobs. If paid to do the work, the value of that contribution would be well over $68.9 million.

Where people live, their age, education or income does not necessarily affect whether people volunteer. Most commonly reported activities include support for children’s activities in and out of schools, sports and recreation, organizing events in church and getting involved with non-government organizations.

These facts are important because it stresses how important volunteering is in the Northwest Territories. In our strategic plan, I think we need to take that next step of supporting a central organization that helps bring all of these volunteer organizations and NGOs together. Every one of these volunteer organizations and NGOs — they are all fighting and they are all struggling for their own existence. They’re so focused on getting themselves up and running that they’re not able to focus in on the bigger picture — the entire sector.

That’s where an organization such as Volunteer NWT comes into play. They are able to be a

champion for all volunteer organizations and NGOs. They champion the cause and champion the purpose of the sector and work with governments hand-in-hand. If you find solutions, things such as formula financing arrangements and financing structures that will help these NGOs and volunteer organizations survive and be sustainable, they can do what they do the best, which is support healthy living in communities.

We’re making the motion in MACA. Personally, I think it probably shouldn’t be in MACA. I think it should probably be in the Executive, but traditionally MACA has been the department that provides this type of support to the central body, which is Volunteer NWT. Basically what we’re suggesting is: we know the federal funding is gone. We know that Volunteer NWT has shut down. They can be brought back with a little bit of help from MACA, a little bit of money — not some tiny amount like $10,000, but enough to help them with their operational requirements. They’ve gone out in good faith, and they’ve managed to collect some money. Unfortunately, the money they were able to collect wasn’t enough to help them do their operations. It was able to help them with some of their programming and some of the research, but they still need some operations money.

This organization includes members from all over the territory. They are truly a territorial organization, working on the behalf of all volunteer organizations and NGOs. Basically we would like MACA to find some money, put together a plan, and work with the organization for the best interests of people of the Northwest Territories.