Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just want to as well echo what my colleagues from Yellowknife had said, is that -- and, you know, these are mental health dollars as far as I'm concerned as well. You know, we're coming out of a pandemic and, you know, we know that there's -- there's issues out there. And, you know, when I look at this COVID relief funding and, you know, it's not there anymore and now is when we actually need it to, you know, promote sports and get people back -- back, you know, playing hockey, skiing, you know, jogging, whatever, biking, you name it. And, you know, it -- this money here, you know, it's not a lot but it goes a long ways. It impacts education. It impacts health. And, you know, it builds self-esteem. It does all -- does all those things. And for some reason, we sort of put it on the back burner and I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's because most of us are older and we're this -- you know, a quiet and -- lifestyle and, you know, don't see exercise as important. But it is. So I would just -- and I'm just going to make a comment here too. So -- and I don't need any answers or anything. I just want to make sure that the department knows how important, you know, sports, recreation and youth are. And the know the Minister knows that already. And I would just like them to, you know, give it a little bit more emphasis, and especially in the -- especially in the -- like, in the small communities where there's not a lot to do, and we got to make sure that, you know, they have access to -- to what we take for granted in -- you know, in Yellowknife, in Hay River, in Fort Simpson, in the big communities. Like, you know, we got some nice facilities there. You know, we've got a lot more people to -- to volunteer and, whereas the smaller communities, they don't -- they don't have that luxury. So I think that, you know, when we're looking at these numbers, we got remember all that and just the impact that it has on the lives of people that we're trying to -- those are the people that we're trying to, you know, set on a path of -- where they're going to take -- you know, take over from us. They're going to be the school teachers. They're going to be the trades people. And lawyers, doctors, you name it. So -- yeah, so more of a comment and I know the Minister is -- I don't have to preach to the converted. So thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

At risk of sounding like a broken record, I do echo my colleague's comments around the importance of sport. I know I played sport a lot as a child, various ones, and I -- yeah, I can't stress the importance of it.

I do have a question, though, besides just saying how wonderful all this is.

I note that in the -- that we have the Nongovernment Organization Stabilization Fund, and we see this one -- we see a general one, and this one is one geared towards sports, youth, and rec. It hasn't had an increase over the last while, and I'm just wondering would these organizations have been able to apply for the funding under the COVID relief funding? Is that why that number didn't rise in the 2021-2022 to sort of help them with COVID? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

No.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

All right. Could the Minister speak to what are those nongovernment organizations that do -- are affected by the stabilization fund and why they -- did they need to see more funding during COVID and not get it? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

So for the groups that are NGOs, it's application-based. They apply, and we were able to give them funding. If the Member is looking specifically for -- I think she's looking for specifically the groups that access it. We can get you that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I appreciate that commitment from the Minister. I would like to see those organizations. I've spoke often about how I think NGOs do better with their money than maybe some of the departments do. So I -- this is an area where I hope that when we come back in a year that we are going to see more money here.

And I guess then, though, the question is, before I ask you for more money for it, is this fund usually fully subscribed? Is it one that is undersubscribed? Oversubscribed? Do we add more money as needed from other areas, or do we cap it? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

My understanding from all of the briefings and that, it's all -- it's always been allocated every year. Is there a bigger demand than we have? Some years, yes. Some years, we've -- we meet our needs with the money we have in there presently. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I mean, again, I'll just reiterate that I would support adding more money here in coming years even now but I know we're probably past that stage.

How does this money work with other funding under, say, Health and Social Services for wellness and things? Can organizations access this pot, then access Health and Social Services pots, access housing pots? Are they able to pool that money, or is it pretty specific? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Yeah.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

So these pots of monies were developed for specific projects and that. But we can go look back at this but right now, we have earmarked for certain projects that -- under each title. But we can go back and look at this. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister -- or Member.