Mr. Speaker, our pets are Members of our families. We welcome them into our home the where we love and care for them in return only for their unending companionship. All pet owners recall fondly of how their bond WITH their pets was first made, and for many that connection is made at a local shelter where dogs and cats are housed and cared for by staff and volunteers in preparation for the day they find their furever homes. Those animals may have nowhere else to turn at first, but thanks to the hard work of animal shelters, they soon find their place in this world, and in turn, those animal shelters find a valued place in our communities because we can't get enough of the compassion and humanity they inspire.

Unfortunately, while the NWT SPCA has that cherished place in our communities, they have no place in our territorial budget. Instead, they must rely almost entirely on donations from citizens and businesses to fund their operations which can top off as high as $700,000 annually. Donations are always appreciated, but they often require fundraising efforts and may not be consistent yearround, and larger donations may be narrowly dedicated solely to animal welfare alone and cannot be spent on administration or employee wages. In fact, the NWT SPCA only receives stable funding from the city of Yellowknife thanks to their work housing stray animals that bylaw apprehends.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT SPCA is not the Yellowknife SPCA. They serve the whole territory taking in cats and dogs as close by as Behchoko and as far as away as Gjoa Haven. They run clinics across the North treating dogs and providing crucial work spaying and neutering them. Mr. Speaker, the SPCA also provides services that can't be accessed in small communities by flying in teams of vets from southern Canada. Everyone in our territory, both human and animal alike, benefit immensely from the work of the NWT SPCA but they need to have territorial funding that fits them. They don't meet the criteria for NGO funding. They cannot access ITI funding as a non-profit. And MACA insists funding won't be made available to them unless communities apply for it themselves.

Mr. Speaker, the SPCA knows best what they need. Northerners trust them enough to donate thousands of dollars each year. It's time this government does the same and provides them with the stability to get cats and dogs into the homes they deserve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.