Certainly, we fund the NWT Foster Parents Coalition. We fund the various foster parents coalitions across the territory, as one example.

Yes, I think that application-based may be a good method of flowing money out and creating small contribution agreements within organizations. I think within the frameworks that we have and within the organizations that we already deal with, the majority of this money can flow, including to some of our own organizations like Healthy Families. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Executive and the Premier. For the Standing Committee on Government Operations, we’ve heard from many Members today, and the NGO Stabilization Fund has been a priority for that committee, and the committee has corresponded with the Minister over the last year several times about the NGO Stabilization Fund. We’ve provided input and we’ve been dismayed to be told by the Minister that a review of the fund found no reason to make any changes to the criteria. Unfortunately, that view is supported by the Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet as well.

There were some changes, though, that were made about a year ago. In my view, they were all administrative, non-substantive and process oriented. They clarified things and sped up the awarding of funds, but nothing more than that.

My question to the Minister is if he could explain to this House what those changes were that were made to the NGO Stabilization Fund. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The changes that we made were we clarified who was eligible to apply. We were getting all kinds of applications from organizations and groups that were applying that didn’t provide any services to the Government of the Northwest Territories. We also tightened up the program so that we could get the request for applications out soon and that we would

process the applications on a timely basis and flow the money out promptly.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I have to agree that those changes were positive. They definitely allowed the staff to process applications much faster than the previous year, and awards came within months of the start of the fiscal year, not near the end of the fiscal year as was happening previously.

In spite of this large improvement, I’d like to know from the Minister what the rationale is for the criteria within the NGO Stabilization Fund which puts new projects above projects from a previous year. I have to ask the Minister how that helps to stabilize an organization.

I think the answer speaks for itself. It’s a stabilization fund. It’s to help organizations that provide essential services to the Government of the Northwest Territories. It’s to help them to provide more structure and improve their capacity. It’s not continuous core funding. I would expect that over a period of time these organizations would develop capacity that they can function without additional funding from the NGO Stabilization Fund.

I guess I can’t agree with the Minister’s assessment of that. Giving an organization money in one year and then pulling it in the next year because we funded you for that project, now we’re only going to fund a new project, in my mind, is destabilizing, not stabilizing.

We have a $1.6 billion budget within this government, and a twofold increase doubling the value of the NGO Stabilization Fund amounts to a 0.02 percent increase to our expenditures bottom line.

I’d like to ask the Premier if he could provide a rationale for the rejection by the Cabinet, by the Minister, his rejection of the committee’s request for an increase to the dollars in the NGO Stabilization Fund.

I think that request seems very simplistic, and if you multiply that a thousand-fold, we still wouldn’t have enough money. I think we have to be focused.

I also talked about the third-party accountability framework. The NGO Stabilization Fund is just a top-up. There are three categories of NGO funding that are provided for by all departments. That’s what the framework is for, is to categorize the level of reporting for the funding that is received by NGOs. Not all NGOs provide essential services to the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Premier, I understand that Cabinet and the

government sees this as a top-up, but it’s obvious that the NGOs need more funding. A request for over a million dollars from all NGOs who applied last year is certainly an indication that $350,000 is not enough.

The Premier has heard many suggestions and ideas here today, and I believe would hear a great many suggestions on how to change the criteria for this fund from NGOs and for making improvements to the fund.

I’d like to ask the Premier and the Minister of the Executive if he will commit to a thorough consultative review of the NGO stabilization policy prior to the end of this fiscal year.

We do have a process and we have a main estimates process, and I also listed off a number of strategies and frameworks that will affect the social programs and NGOs. As we go forward, we have finite resources. We will develop action plans for all those strategies, and as part of that, this request will be part of that mix.

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

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We put on emergency preparedness workshops that some of the communities take part in. To date, I think we had nine communities take part in a two-day workshop that we put on. As a result of that, they have updated their community plan. I believe we have another six workshops that we are planning for 2013-14. As a result, that many

more communities will be updating their community emergency plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am excited to hear that. We do have these programs being offered to communities to update their plans, which then leads to my second question.

We do know that our GNWT emergency plan is responsible for providing assistance to local authorities during emergencies when our government is called upon. Can the Minister indicate at this time maybe some numbers of communities that are updated, that have been approved by this government in the last two years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, to date, as of April 2013, we have 17 communities that have updated their plans. We have 14 communities that need updating and sometimes that could be just validating their emergency plans from an exercise. Their plans could be updated and considered validated once they go through an exercise. We still have two communities without emergency plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the numbers that the Minister is giving to us are indeed promising, but yet, having asked this question numerous times in this House, we are just not quite there yet, which then leads to asking my third question.

What does it take to emphasize the importance to the communities to have 100 percent active plans? As the Minister said, 17 out of 33, that is just over 51 percent, are validated. What does the Minister do to propose to get all 33 of these communities with validated plans so that when we are deployed to assist, we indeed can have the resources in place and to make sure that taxpayers’ dollars are spent wisely? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, there are 17 that were updated and 14 that need updating, so that when you look at it, we have 31 of the 33 communities that have updated plans. With the 14, they just need to be considered validated once they do an exercise. The plans could be up to date and we just need to validate them through an exercise.

We continue to work with those communities. A lot of them recognize the importance of having a good emergency plan in place. Once they go through an exercise, they will be considered validated. We are going in the right direction. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again encouraging and, again, I’m not denouncing the Minister’s math. It is as accurate as mine. The question really, at the end of this, is that it sounds like we are very close. It sounds like there are really

only two communities that don’t have a plan in place, when math is accurate.

Can the Minister give some assurances to the House and Members here that by the end of fall of 2013, all 33 communities will have a validated emergency action plan? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to work with those two communities and point out the importance of having an emergency plan in place. The other communities, the 14 that we need to work on, again, they do have emergency committees in those communities. Once we go through the exercise, then their plans will be validated. We will do what we can to stress to them the importance of validating their emergency plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.