Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure who to ask my questions to and I am not even sure what to ask at this stage. You can tell I am a little frustrated with the lack of support for some very valuable NGOs. I don’t think we have really quantified the value that NGOs bring to a situation. If we as a government had to pay for the work that they do, we probably wouldn’t realize the same results and we probably couldn’t afford it.
The council that I refer to in Hay River is the Council for Persons with Disabilities. They teach literacy counselling; they fundraised $50,000 in the community to operate a handivan; they offer their food and shelter program; they have healthy food initiatives; they do a Community Gardening Program; they do PC training with clients that are in Hay River.
We have a facility in Hay River, an assisted living facility for persons with disabilities, as well, and we really appreciate having it there. Don’t get me wrong, but that facility costs this government about $4 million a year to operate and there are 10 clients there. If you do the math quickly, with all the overhead and everything, that is about $400,000 per client, and yet we have an NGO in Hay River that is out there working with people with disabilities in the community, in which they get from this government $35,000 per year. If that NGO were not doing this work, who would be doing it? Thank you.