Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, provide essential and invaluable services to the people of the Northwest Territories. These not-for-profit organizations are run by dedicated, community-minded people who care about giving back and improving the lives of their fellow citizens. The list of what they contribute to our society is endless, and the work they do is not easy. In addition to fulfilling their primary mandates, many NGOs invest an inordinate amount of time and effort securing annual funding. This splits their focus, inhibits their ability to plan beyond 12 months, and leaves many budgeting carefully throughout the year, just to keep the lights on.
For this reason, many NGOs rely not only on their core funding, undertake on this government's Stabilization Fund which by the government's own policy is intended to "help NGOs who deliver critical government-funded programs or services to the public to stabilize or develop their capacity." Critical programs and services, Mr. Speaker, are defined as ones "the government would either deliver directly, or engage a third party to deliver if the NGO was not delivering them." Despite this, the amount of available funding under the policy, $350,000 annually, has not been increased in the last seven of the eight years that the fund has been in operation.
Mr. Speaker, I chair the Standing Committee on Government Operations which has continued to carefully monitor the government's management of this fund. Members are deeply concerned by our research which shows that the fund is over-subscribed by approximately three quarters of a million dollars each year. We continue to call for an increase to this fund, a request that our predecessor committee gave back in the 2012 Main Estimates. Mr. Speaker, we are concerned that the management of this fund has been improperly parked with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, where it is managed by Sport, Recreation and Youth, and inaccurately portrayed as an initiative supporting volunteerism. We are concerned that vital NGOs such as the Soup Kitchen in Hay River are being denied this funding because they do not meet the criteria.
Mr. Speaker, we have called on the administration of the NGO Stabilization Fund to be returned to the executive. We have called on this government to increase the amount of funding annually allocated to it. We have also called for a review of the fund's policies to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of our essential NGO sector. We continue waiting, Mr. Speaker, for a positive response from this government to any of these requests, and we will continue to push for this change as we review the 2018-2019 business plans in November. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.