Joe Handley

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a Framework for Action on family violence. It includes women; it includes children; it includes men. It’s family violence. We’re not putting a priority on one or the other. We’re looking at all aspects. Now, when the front-line workers want baseline data, I’m sure it’s going to include that discussion; who’s going to be surveyed, what kind of baseline data do we need and so on. But it is family violence, not against any one sector. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I don’t get to all of the coalition and government meetings. Again, there have been a number of meetings. They have, in the Framework for Action - Phase II, there is a whole list of actions in there that have been laid out. The consensus among all the partnership is that this is an opportunity to bring in one caregiver from each community and experts both from the North and from the South. The culmination of those people to take a look at the actions that are identified and determine what is the best way of being able to put those in place. So it’s a conference...

Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I will answer the question with regard to the survey. The survey is being done because we have been working to reduce violence and so on. We don’t have any baseline data, so we need to have a baseline data that we could work from to know the areas where we need to put more effort on public education, prevention strategies and so on. The survey would involve a sample size of 750 respondents and would be distributed amongst various strata within the different communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to say that those of us in Cabinet certainly agree with the sentiment that’s expressed here today, that this is not the kind of issue where we have to have…(inaudible)…debate and disagreement, but one that we all have to stand together on.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out that our government already does conduct criminal record checks on people who are in positions of trust and also for those who are in highly sensitive positions. Protection of those that are most vulnerable has to be our highest priority, and our government will look very carefully at this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll answer briefly. These questions are more appropriate for the Minister of Transportation. The toll is not likely going to be $10. My estimate, I believe, is it would roughly be $6.50 if we apply the inflation factor to the numbers we had when they were first worked out at $6. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The bridge, Deh Cho Bridge, is being built as a P3 project, private-public partnership. So in that arrangement, the Bridge Corporation made up of the combined community alliance will be the owner of the bridge initially. They are the ones who will borrow the money to build the bridge and it’ll be financed over 35 or so years. So the GNWT will not be using capital money for this project. The $25 million the Member refers to is money that is identified in the federal budget. It’s $25 million a year for seven years for trades-related infrastructure. We don’t have exact...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are going to go ahead with the short-term repairs to deal with the interim problems. Those are things ranging from water under the crawlspace, there was a sewage spill, there’s mould in some units, the roof leaking, the deterioration on some of the plumbing lines. Those are things that we’re going to repair in the short term. But right now, the consultant’s recommendation is to replace the facility, and our people in the Housing Corporation agree with that recommendation. So I fully expect that when the final report comes out, that will be the direction. Thank you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Housing Corporation has been working on this issue for some time. We have a consultant who did a report. The Housing Corporation received a copy of that report on April 27th and are now taking a look at it. As I had said to the Member before, we plan to have the final report available by June. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A lot of the recommendations come from the coalition itself. The government is one member on that coalition. There are the groups I mentioned before. What they are trying to do is get a balance between the support for salaries and so on for our front-line workers and training of workers. Just to put more money into workers and not giving the training that is necessary may not be the best arrangement either. So it has to be a balance. The idea of collecting the baseline data came largely from the coalition. They want to know whether or not what they are doing is...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again I want to remind Members that we have, we’re doing this in partnership with the Coalition Against Family Violence. Those are the people who are the front-line workers. Those are the people who are facing the issues every day. Those are the people, you know, the family support centre in Hay River, the Tuk women’s and children’s shelter, the Inuvik Transition House, the Alison McAteer House, Sutherland House in Fort Smith, the Centre for Northern Families, the Status of Women Council, these are front-line workers. I think it’s probably frustrating for them, they...