Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and, Mr. Speaker, that's excellent news. I think the other side of this is to make sure that police officers have better training to deal with complaints as they come in. I'm wondering if the Minister can tell us what changes might be made in training police officers to respond to sexual assault complaints? Mahsi.

I appreciate that the Minister read the article, but he did not respond to my question. So I'm going to ask again what he is going to do as Minister to bring these unfounded sexual assault complaints down? There are a number of very specific practical actions that are being taken by his counterpart in the Yukon, where the police are also on contract to address this problem directly beyond just having a meeting. What is his response?

Thank you, colleagues. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. To realize the spirit of Hush Hush No More, we must change hearts and minds. This will be hard work, Mr. Speaker. Change involves opening policing practice to thorough review and regular public oversight. It also means facing and changing biases ingrained in our cultures and in ourselves. To truly bring an end to sexual violence, we must walk the talk; we must believe all women, promote reporting, investigate complaints sensitively and thoroughly, and bring justice to all women who have been victimized. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I am going to try one more time. The government has made a policy decision here on instructional hours, to pilot the reduction in instructional hours. It is the government's responsibility to communicate with parents, not through any intermediary who is tasked with implementing this, but to tell parents and students what the rationale is for this policy, what the benefits are, what consideration was made to alternatives, and so on and so forth. It is not up to the school boards to do that. They are following instructions. Eighty per cent of the Yellowknife school board budgets come from...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister, but that completely misses the point. This is an agreement between the GNWT and the Teachers' Association. The onus is on the GNWT to communicate with parents about the MOU that they reached with the Teachers' Association and to be proactive in telling them what this project is about, how it is going to be evaluated, and what impact it will have on their kids. I mean, up to this point there are no clear answers on this from the government, and I believe that it is the government's role. It is not good enough to say, well, each school needs to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I just want to provide some general reflections here, as you requested. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment plays a very important role in the NWT in controlling some key funds which are widely accessed, portfolios such as education and income assistance, to name just a couple. I recognize that the department is looking at substantial change, with a view to improving service delivery in these areas, but I have to point to a very consistent pattern of communication breakdown that has happened between both the department and the public and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his openness to this idea. One of the things that we have discussed previously -- I know he is working on some kind of an evaluation for What Will It Take. We have also talked about the possibility of redoing the family violence attitude survey. I'm wondering if the Minister is willing to work with his colleague, the Minister responsible for the Status of Women, to find the money and make this repeat of the family violence survey happen?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a set of questions that deal with the unfounded sexual assault complaints for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The questions for Justice really deal with what has happened after the fact, but Health and Social Services is in charge of prevention.

My first question is: how is the department integrating the Globe's findings into the work that it is doing, or planning to do, in combatting violence against women, and family violence? Mahsi.

I appreciate all the homework the Minister has done on this topic, but I'm not hearing a robust response to these findings beyond what the RCMP has already committed to do itself, which is to review all of those unfounded cases. I'm not hearing he is going to take proactive response to what is clearly a crisis in sexual assault complaints here in the NWT as it is across the country.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I remain concerned that this division is overstaffed vis-a-vis other priorities of the GNWT, and I would encourage the Minister, in the next budget cycle, to consider how these non-specialist positions could be redeployed to economic diversification portfolios. Thank you.