Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I wasn’t expecting to get that request this soon after concluding our budgeting process. In our recently approved budget we did increase funding to youth by way of creating a second youth position for the north side of the Territories, and we have still retained one position in the south end. We will look at what we can do. We need to have more discussion with our recreation, sport and youth organizations to see what we can do as we come forward for the business planning process.

Mr. Speaker, this government spends approximately $5 million in the area of sport and recreation. That’s including the support we provide to our five non-governmental organizations that work with the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners, and they allocate the funding. It is part of their mandate to coordinate a system that recognizes their priorities and to provide direction. We also expect them to provide the resources fairly. On top of the support that’s provided by Sport and Rec, we as government also work with the Aboriginal Sport Circle to provide funding to go to the North...

I thought I was pretty clear that the core funding does not come directly from us. It does come from the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take the opportunity today as the lead Minister of the Building Our Future Strategic Initiative Committee to provide an update on the planned actions of this committee.

As you know, the Building Our Future initiative is one of five strategic initiatives that form the backbone of our government’s strategic approach. This initiative focuses on our future by making significant investments in prevention and long-term social well-being of the population of the Northwest Territories. These investments build on our significant base of programs and services that...

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had a very good relationship with all the sport organizations, including the Aboriginal Sport Circle. We meet with them on a very regular basis. They have some new staff. They’ve taken a new approach and set some new directions that we’re quite excited and pleased to see. We meet with them. I met with them, in fact, yesterday. They’re doing a very good job on the North American Indigenous Games. They have relayed to us their concerns as to core funding, and we will continue to support them.

We have, in the last while, lobbied the federal government to provide increased...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

That's something that we have been doing on a fairly regular basis in the last while, trying to find ways to support Volunteer NWT. We have been meeting with their executive.

Our information is that they have since dissolved their organization. To bring in the board and representatives from across the Northwest Territories is going to be a very extensive undertaking. At this point we don't have the resources to do that. We'd like to bring people from across the North to talk about volunteerism and to see how we can improve our system and support. However, until we identify the resources and...

We have been meeting with Volunteer NWT as recently as last week, or several weeks ago at least. The dollars that were provided to Volunteer NWT was $50,000. That money was to be used to explore new and other sources of revenue for that organization, as we indicated to them that we were not in a position to core fund them or pick up where the federal government cut the funding. So those dollars were provided to them. I don't believe we have seen a report of what they have found. Our information tells us that Volunteer has decided to wind up their organization as they haven't been able to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to share with colleagues some of the positive results that have been realized to date in the first year after the formal implementation of the New Deal for NWT Community Governments.

Implemented April 1, 2007, the New Deal is designed to provide communities with increased authority in decision making on capital projects. Designed in partnership between the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and community governments, the initiative reflects a huge shift in our government’s approach to planning, designing and implementing community public...

Mr. Chairman, we’ll have Michael Aumond, the deputy minister, explain the discrepancy here.