Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wept when the Office of the Auditor General reviewed its latest findings of the Child and Family Services audit. They concluded for the second time in four years that Child and Family Services is failing children in care; not just failing them, but sometimes putting them at risk of even greater harm than the circumstances that brought them into care in the first place. A child has been assaulted. Another was missing from a treatment program.

For example, health authorities must investigate a report of a child in a potentially unsafe situation within 30 days...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have a firm grip on the timeline in which these changes are going to take place. What we've heard, in 2014 we heard it, in 2009 we heard it, in the year 2000, from the Child Welfare League is that these changes need to be made urgently. Children's lives are impacted by the decisions that are being made by the Minister and his officials. Given the urgency that is repeated yet again, how is the Minister going to ensure that, this time, the needs of children are going to be met? Mahsi.

Thank you for that confirmation. I don't really have any further questions on this point. I have a comment that there will need to be, I think, some help for the YWCA to continue the Transitional Housing Program, but I realize that it is not covered in this supp. Thank you.

That's a trick question because the page now looks different.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the barges are in crisis, there is money to be found immediately, and the problem is on its way to resolution. Now that we are in the fourth year of this Assembly, the Minister is making a business case for more resources for family violence. I can't say it's too little, too late. Everything is appreciated, but the fact is that this area needs serious attention. It needs new initiatives, and I'm looking for a commitment for the Minister of action, not just talking. Is he able to make that commitment? Mahsi.

The Minister can find the report in the library, or I can lend him my copy, and he can have a read of it. What I hear him saying is that he's going to create an echo chamber of government departments speaking to one another rather than consulting with people who are front-line service providers or who have a stake in this system as victims, as batterers, and so on. Why can't this work include a broader array of people than simply having people within government talk to one another?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to have the nursing and social work students here, in the House, today. I would particularly like to recognize Jordan Erickson, Jody Prince, and Candice Ferdinand who are joining us today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Government of the Northwest Territories has supported the YWCA with a grant in kind by making the Rockhill Apartment available through the Transitional Housing Program, and it is my understanding that this grant in kind has been deleted because the building burned down. Could the Minister confirm that is the case?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, under Community Health Programs, I see that there's an expenditure to provide funding for an extension of a grant in-kind related to the renewal of the lease with the Young Women's Christian Association for the Rock Hill Apartments. Can the Minister give us an update on the status of that grant in-kind, given the fact that the building has burned down? Thank you.

This work is so important that, in the last three years, the budget has increased by 5 percent or $172,000. On what basis is the Minister treating this crisis as a crisis?