Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, mining has a long and rich history in the NWT. For more than 60 years, our vast resources have made us a land of great potential, and we need to make the most of that potential. One of the main priorities of this government is to have an economy that is strong and diversified, and we identified the need for a comprehensive, environmentally sustainable Mineral Development Strategy.

Later today, at the appropriate time, I will table the Mineral Development Strategy Panel’s report, titled “Pathways to Mineral Development.” This report represents stakeholders' opinions and offers a number of recommendations based on their input as well as the panel's own extensive experience. The recommendations in this report will play a key role in shaping the final Mineral Development Strategy.

The panel held over 40 meetings, where they heard from more than 120 individuals representing 65 different organizations. This consultative approach will ensure that any strategy created by the GNWT is a true reflection of what is needed to attract new investment, supports those in the industry who are involved in mineral development projects in the territory, and upholds our commitment to environmental sustainability.

The majority of participants in the process supported development of the NWT's mineral resources. They expect the Mineral Development Strategy to identify initiatives and pathways for balanced mineral development that will protect the environment, respect Aboriginal cultures and

lifestyles, and leave Northerners with a lasting and positive legacy.

In order to address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities, the panel has identified five areas of action. First, we need to create a competitive edge. This includes enhancing geoscience, incentives to promote exploration, marketing of the potential of the NWT as a place to explore and mine, and investments in infrastructure. As well, we need to create a new NWT regulatory environment.

Our work must include engagement with Aboriginal groups and communities to build capacity and have more effective consultation. It must be sustainable. We need to continue our efforts into workforce development and public awareness, including funding for training programs, increasing awareness of career opportunities, and improving public understanding of the mining industry.

Mr. Speaker, our government has a vision of a territory in which a strong economy provides jobs and opportunities for our people and their communities. We need to make progress on not just economic priorities but also social and environmental priorities to achieve this vision. That includes plans and strategies like the Mineral Development Strategy, a complementary Economic Opportunities Strategy, and other linked initiatives such as the Land Use and Sustainability Framework and a Northwest Territories Anti-Poverty Strategy.

It will also be closely integrated with the NWT Energy Plan, as both energy and mineral development sectors face the key challenge of lack of territorial infrastructure. With the release of today’s recommendations report, a final Mineral Development Strategy is well underway. A strong economy creates sustainable, vibrant communities. It provides jobs and opportunities so people can avoid poverty, while government investments in education and training help ensure our residents can take advantage of the opportunities available to them.

At this time I would like to acknowledge the Members of the Advisory Panel who are present in the gallery this afternoon. The work they have put in so far will ensure the Strategy is comprehensive, balanced and reflects the needs of industry,

residents and NWT businesses. As well, I would like to thank the NWT/Nunavut Chamber of Mines – our partner in this endeavour – for their support and input during this process. Their advice and experience has been invaluable.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer a special thanks to the Members of this Assembly who contributed their time and feedback through the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, as well as individually, to this process. We are happy to have this support now and moving into the future when the Mineral Development Strategy becomes a reality.

Before I conclude, I would like to invite all Members to an event I am hosting in the media room after question period during our afternoon break. The NWT/Nunavut Chamber of Mines, along with the Mineral Development Strategy Panel will attend. Panel chair, Mr. Angus Robertson, will give a short presentation highlighting the findings from the recommendations report. I ask you to join me and the Members of the Advisory Panel as we move one step closer to our goal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about an NGO in Hay River. It is the Hay River Council for Persons with Disabilities.

I would like to take my hat off to this organization, who has been faced with many challenges and yet continues to persist in their efforts to assist the people in our community who have disabilities. They do this in spite of not very much help from this government. As a matter of fact, I would say this government discouraged their efforts.

This small group of people gets $35,000 from this government. For that, they employ a half-time person, but what they also do is they look for funds from other sources and they have leveraged up to $455,000 to do programs in the community to help Hay River people who have disabilities and they have done so much on their own initiative.

Mr. Speaker, they do employment programs, housing programs, handivan, they teach life skills. They have a little program called Rags to Riches, where you can take clothing or articles to them. They will cut them up and they will make them into things they can sell and they will turn rags into a little bit of money.

They have done everything. They have held bake sales. They’ve held garage sales. They get $35,000 from this government and a whole lot of hassle to go with it.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you a few things that have recently been said by members of the public service. We won’t name them because that’s not the appropriate thing to do, but who have gone to meet with the Council for Persons with Disabilities in Hay River.

They sat down across the desk from these hardworking volunteers – one of them is on salary, the rest are volunteers – and have said to them, “You just have to learn to say no. You shouldn’t be doing all these things for these clients. You just need to learn to say no. You shouldn’t be doing all this. And when they still come to you with these problems, you need to refer them to other places in the community where they can go for help.” Hey! News flash! There is no other place. If there was, they wouldn’t have to be taking on this role.

This organization has had to move seven times in the last few years, going from pillar to post to try and have a roof over their head. Kindly, Minister Miltenberger came down there one time and he actually said, you know, here is some government office space, under the health authority. They did move there, but it turned out it ended up costing them more money because they had to pay for their own Internet, but they were in a government office. But these people come down from Yellowknife, where the funding goes here in spades, okay? The infrastructure here is pretty wonderful in Yellowknife. But they come down to a little organization like this in Hay River and they tell them that the space that they have, it’s gloomy. There are cracks in the floor. They’re trying to take a sow’s ear and turn it into a silk purse to have something for these people with disabilities, and they get, basically, discouraged by the people who are supposed to oversee this program who work for the government who are from Yellowknife.

I’d like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

At a recent exchange between some members who represent departments who came down to Hay River to speak to these people who were saying you need to learn to say no, you need to refer these people to other places, you need to hold more fundraisers, in that same conversation they dared to mention that your Ministers have been down here and they have seen the hard work we’re doing, and they’re seeing what we’re doing and they’re supporting it. The response they got – and I want to put this on the public record, and this is referring to Mr. Lafferty and referring to Mr. Beaulieu – your Ministers have big hearts. They say things like that, but they don’t

control the budget of the departments that we work for. I want that on the public record, and we had better start showing some respect for these people in communities who are now looking at helping Fort Providence, Fort Resolution and Fort Simpson get programs going for people with disabilities. This is not coming from a government department. This is from volunteers in Hay River, and I want them to get some support and some respect.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, do a lot of important work in our communities. Some receive GNWT funding to deliver critical services such as shelters for the homeless, mental health and addictions services, services for disabled people, friendship centres, daycare and youth centres and women’s shelters. Put another way, these groups are doing vital social service work that the government would have to do if they weren’t there, and doing it better.

The NGO Stabilization Fund was established in 2009 to help these groups stabilize and develop the capacity to manage programs and services. It covers costs that aren’t core funded, like board and staff development, strategic planning, community outreach or transition costs. But the fund only has a budget of $350,000, and it’s been stuck at that amount for the last four years. It’s only open for NGOs, not to community or Aboriginal governments, land claim organizations or schools, and it’s only open to groups that already receive some level of funding from the GNWT to deliver critical service, but it cuts out new groups that might want to start offering a service in, say, Fort Providence or Enterprise. There isn’t even enough money to cover the need of all the groups that do qualify under the policy.

In 2012-13, 11 out of 27 applicants were approved, but several of the approved groups didn’t get the full amount requested. Even though many of the groups will receive funding that are based in Yellowknife, they do serve people from my constituency and we’re grateful for their work. I support raising the budget of the NGO Stabilization Fund to at least $500,000 each year.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also speak on NGOs. I’d like to thank the members of the Government Operations for bringing this mini theme day forward. It is a very important issue, especially out in the communities.

We are very concerned about the level of funding that’s being provided. As my colleague indicated, one of the community groups in Hay River definitely would want to receive some funding, but have limited success getting funding from the territorial government.

There are many organizations out in the communities that need this type of funding. Some of them are new organizations. Some of them are organizations that just feel defeated. The committee has given us information on how many people applied and how many people were eligible, and half the people that applied were not eligible. Whatever the criteria, they were eliminated from the process. The money that they do get, you have to fit a round hole in a square peg type of thing. That’s the problem. There is a difficulty there.

We hate to sit here and criticize Yellowknife and our colleagues here, but the majority of the funding goes to these centres. Some of them are Yellowknife funds, but some of them are territorial groups, territorial groups that say they are territorial groups, but we are having difficulties in the fact that some of the funding is not getting out to those regions. Some of the funding is burnt up on O and M and operation costs of running these organizations. I know they are trying their best. I know they are trying hard, but it is frustrating when some of these organizations are supposed to be representing the Territories and the funding doesn’t ever get out to the regions at all. There have been several communities or organizations that I’ve talked to that said, we don’t get any assistance, or we get a small amount of assistance to do a special event, I think. We definitely need to increase the funding. We definitely need to look at the criteria that fit this program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, support the improvement of the Non-Government Organizations Stabilization Fund as a vital tool for mobilizing the energies and effectiveness of our partners in civil society.

As I pointed out before, three pillars support the functioning of a healthy society, government and the market represented by business have their role to play, but they must act in partnership with civil society, both individual citizens and their representative groups of non-government organizations.

The NGO Stabilization Fund has made a valuable contribution to assisting a subset of those public partners, but limited to only those NGOs providing critical government services according to their definition. The fund’s effectiveness and impact is also limited by being ineligible to a broad band of social and environmental and other organizations. As a result, we are failing to mobilize the full range of civil efforts.

Obviously, government is responsible for operating a wide range of services, but it cannot provide for all public interests, and it has challenges funding those programs, programs it does provide. That is where our civil partners have an essential role through the motivation to act where there is need, and to do so effectively with very modest support and to attract other sources of support.

The fact the government doesn’t offer a service is no yardstick of whether it is critically needed: food banks, food rescue, children’s sports and environmental organizations, a myriad of community organizations, really. We could all give a list of examples of critical programs being provided by NGOs, specifically because government does not provide them.

The research abounds on the leverage of huge multipliers and value achieved by resourcing NGOs with their access to volunteer and in-time services. Our NGOs are community-based and grassroots, providing targeted services sensitively designed.

Pulled from our $1.6 billion budget and growing, we need to identify significant and meaningful dollars beyond the current $350,000 to help our NGOs meet these needs that go beyond the stabilization criteria of the NGO fund. We should also look to providing a mechanism that goes beyond a one-time annual process. In many cases, our NGOs step forward immediately in response to new and emerging needs, and even crises. We need to be equally flexible and responsive when our NGOs step up to confront urgent new demands.

Let’s recognize the work of our amazing volunteer community and the service to society that they provide. I will be working with my colleagues through committee for an overhaul and expansion of the NGO Stabilization Fund program. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also stand here in the House and use my Member’s statement to talk about the NGO Stabilization Fund.

In my work in doing a lot of volunteering, working on committees, past government work, working in actually offering some of these programs through some of the departments that I have worked for, we have a lot of really great NGOs out in the Territories who are doing excellent work. Coming into the government, I see the process of how long it takes to get a budget passed to support some of these organizations that we put policies in place that prevent them from actually accessing some of the dollars that are in there.

For instance, our youth centres are great organizations doing a lot of great work. Our MACA department does offer half a million dollars for these organizations to do their work, but that is not enough. This past year I think they averaged out somewhere in the amount of $14,700. Then if you go back a couple of weeks in the news report, a lot of the Aboriginal kids that have been in foster care are due to neglect.

A lot of times these kids are the ones that access the programs at the youth centres and friendship centres. These youth centres burn out their staff and they also don’t have enough dollars to run specific programs.

Looking at the website earlier, it talks about how this NGO Stabilization Fund supports NGOs that deliver critical GNWT-funded programs critical to NWT residents. It also talks about how it recognizes that a lot of these NGOs provide essential services that follow under GNWT policy objectives. Those should say that we have to support them even more, or fight for dollars to get the programs up in place.

You have a lot of organizations doing a lot of great work right now and we really need to support them by upping the NGO Stabilization Fund, making it a little easier for these non-government organizations to access funding so that they can provide these critical services, essential services that are needed in the Northwest Territories. All we have to do is look at the reports, discussions that we have with governments and all these indicators that should be red flagged that need to be adjusted.

With that said, Mr. Speaker, I will have some questions later for the Minister of Health and Social Services on some of those prevention and promotion dollars that we did fight for during the last budget session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has had an Affirmative Action Policy since 1989. The goal of the policy is that public service is representative of the people it serves. The population of the Northwest Territories is 51 percent Aboriginal and 39 percent of the workforce is Aboriginal. In 2011, the latest year available, indigenous Aboriginal employees made up only 32 percent of the public service. That is the same figure as the year before and pretty close to where it has been for the last 10 years.

The policy is not working, Mr. Speaker. Meanwhile, my constituents, mostly indigenous Aboriginal people, are having a tough time getting government jobs. When they apply on competitions, a lot of them don’t make it to the interview stage; they get screened out. The excuse is that the person hasn’t shown on paper that they have relevant education and experience. Even when they do get interviews, some positions are not appealable and often, as such, a potential employee is not allowed to see their test results or get a copy of them. They feel that this is unfair and that when they fail these screening tests, they cannot even challenge them. Many positions call for much more formal education and experience than a person really needs to do the job well.

The 2009 Statistics Canada indicates that 30 percent of adult Aboriginals with high school and no diplomas are unemployed. If an Aboriginal person does get an interview, sometimes they lose out for cultural reasons and values. Many Aboriginal people believe it is childish to blow your own horn and talk about yourself, but that is exactly what you are supposed to do in the job interview. Also, when they feel that they are the best person and they don’t get the job, they don’t like to appeal and cause trouble.

Our system does not value traditional knowledge, values and northern experiences nearly enough in the selection process. Devolution is almost upon us. We are told there will be many new jobs, but how many will be filled by Aboriginal people?

I think we need a system to review how and why Aboriginal residents are not being attracted, screened in and hired. The government must find better ways to fill its shop now and in the future, for Aboriginal Northerners over the long term. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

: Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleagues, I too will speak about NGOs and the NGO Stabilization Fund today. To be clear, I fully support the concept of the NGO Stabilization Fund, but I have concerns with the current purpose and value of the fund.

NGOs are so very important in the Northwest Territories. They provide vital programs and services to our residents, services not offered by GNWT departments. NGOs work tirelessly to improve the lives of Northerners and this government gives them little financial support. I want to say emphatically that I find no fault with the staff who manage the fund’s applications and awards. My concerns are with the fund itself, specifically with the policy that guides the fund.

Firstly, the value of the NGO Stabilization Fund has remained constant, $350,000 per year since the fund was first implemented in 2009. Over the last four years, our NWT NGOs have grown both in number and in the activities and services they provide. Not so the dollars in the Stabilization Fund. For the past two years, the annual total amount requested by eligible applicants to the fund has exceeded $800,000. The amount requested by prioritized eligible applicants has exceeded $480,000.

The funding available through this program is, clearly, inadequate in relation to the needs in our territory. It needs to be increased to at least $500,000, an amount which would then at least meet the needs of the prioritized applicants from last year.

I’m also concerned that the assessment factors used to evaluate applications to the fund place a higher priority on management, governance and organization development than for extraordinary operations costs. It is the extraordinary costs which can easily destabilize an NGO, yet we do not accept them as valid criteria for purposes of this fund.

I’m also somewhat dumfounded to see the fund criteria, which state that new projects take precedence over those supported in previous years for the same NGO. If the goal of this fund is stabilization, I would think ongoing support for an initiative would provide greater stability to the organization than one-year, one-time funding for a project.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

The last concern for today is the lack of financial assistance for emerging NGOs, those NGOs who are developing valuable civil society and volunteer bases. These new guys on the block do not currently receive GNWT funds and so they do not qualify for any of the dollars in the NGO Stabilization Fund. A separate fund is needed to assist these emerging NGOs as they get started and find their feet.

The NGO Stabilization Fund has been a welcome addition to the financial assistance given by the GNWT to NGOs providing important services for NWT residents on behalf of this government. It’s an invaluable program and must be continued, but in the future it must undergo a thorough, consultative review, be broadened and expanded with a view to improving the fund to better benefit Northerners served by our NGOs. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today we are talking about the NGO Stabilization Fund that was established back in the 16th Assembly to

help out the organizations that are doing a lot of good work in the Northwest Territories, and it’s not easy to make ends meet for these organizations. A lot of people welcomed the NGO Stabilization Fund when it was first established, but in our small communities, and especially for our elders, it has been a disappointment. Elders in Yellowknife are very fortunate to have Aven Manor and all the programs that go with it. I know our elders in the Sahtu would really appreciate having programs like that.

In our smaller communities, we do not have these facilities, the organizations, the corporate donors or enough volunteers to make programs like what Yellowknife has had, without a lot of government support and funding. How are we supposed to get started?

The NGO fund only helps NGOs that are already there. It doesn’t help any new NGOs to get going, even if your organization is registered properly. Small communities without NGOs are out of luck. The government stands back and waits for applications to come in, knowing that most of them come from Yellowknife. There’s about 350-some-odd NGOs in Yellowknife, only 33 in the Sahtu where there’s lots of NGOs that are not easily paired off in terms of the ratio number. That’s not good enough.

Our elders in the smaller communities deserve better. I would like to see this government either

change the NGO Stabilization Fund or come up with new funding that would also allow small communities like Colville Lake and Tulita to start some programming for elders.

Our elders are precious to us and we want to give them the best quality of life and keep them in our communities as long as possible. We need the government to work with us to make that happen, not hide behind the complicated funding policies that hardly anybody or no one understands.

I’ll have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Imagine a world free of hunger. Imagine a world free from poverty, or imagine a world free from sickness. This does sound too good to be true, but in reality, we all know that this is utopian thinking, and for the practical person in all of us, we know that the world is not free at all but suffers from quite the opposite.

To combat this reality, we count on the benevolence and stewardship of non-governmental agencies to fill the gaps where public services leave off. In essence, many NGOs are the lifeblood that complement or fulfill the delivery of care, food and wellness needed by many of our residents. A world without NGOs is like a world without oxygen. You cannot live without the other.

It strikes me as odd that today many of us here have to stand before this House and somehow play on the purse strings of the Department of Executive to urge them to change their tune. Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, as you heard from many of my colleagues, the demand for services does exceed the supply of funding. A mere $350,000 is doled out annually for a handful of lucky recipients, only to be used to soothe the pain. This funding is not for lavish, expensive sports cars. This funding is not for posh office furniture, and I can guarantee you that this funding is not for expensive executive travel to faraway lands. No, Mr. Speaker, this money is for the lights, the heat and the power, if you’re lucky.

I know we need to be stewards of the public purse, and I for one am very conscientious of our spending dollars. Yet, it pains me to see waste going on in our government, duplication of services, ivory towers of self-preservation, and yet we allow our NGOs to somehow manage with nothing. Moreover, we ask them to do the job we don’t or, in many cases, won’t.

This is not only unfair, it is not even human for us to expect such. Yet, we’ve allowed this to go on for

too many years, and this must stop. There is a solution, and that solution is we have the ability to change minds. We have the ability to change hearts, and we certainly have the ability to change lives.

This change has to come from the top down. It has to come from our Premier, and it has to be supported by Cabinet. Let’s do the right thing and increase our funding for NGO stabilization, and let’s open up the doors to funding for emerging NGOs who need our support at their critical junctures.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.