Days after a group of Yellowknifers signed a letter petitioning local businesses to support shelters in their neighbourhoods, Yellowknife City Council voted unanimously in favour of doling out equal shares of $100,000 of federal funding to local frontline organizations at a regular meeting of council, Sept. 27.
When Coun. Niels Konge asked why the recipients would receive equal shares and not tailored amounts, Mayor Rebecca Alty said the goal was “trying to get the money out as soon as possible,” which Konge agreed was reasonable.
Each of the six not-for-profits will receive an equal share of $100,000 the city received from the federal government’s Reaching Home — Canada’s Strategy to End Homelessness COVID-19 Funding.
Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation, Home Base, Salvation Army, YWCA NWT, the Yellowknife Women’s Society and the NWT Disabilities Council will each receive $16,667.
Coun. Shauna Morgan told council the community advisory board (CAB) “did reach out to organizations and asked what people need right now.”
“All of the frontline organisations are being hit pretty hard right now; stretched pretty thin,” she told the virtual meeting of council. She said the CAB trusted the frontline agency’s to spend the money appropriately.
Mayor Alty added the money will still have to be spent in line with the Reaching Home funding rules.
Hawa Dumbuya-Sesay executive director of the YWCA NWT said her agency will use the money for PPE and helping out families having issues getting enough to eat.