Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the further programming opportunities before Aurora College and one of the problems put forward is the lease is expiring in about two years. The issue is about not just the lease, but its present location, I don’t believe it suits its need for future growth. My question would be to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. What is the Minister’s plan to help support the college to move forward towards an independent campus that I believe Aurora College needs to have in the Yellowknife Campus location? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The college campus itself has been in discussion for quite some time now. We’re fully aware that the lease is up in 2012, and we are working towards possibly extending the lease until we have a plan in place. We probably have to do that anyway, because it will take a few years to develop a plan of action and then find a suitable location, if that needs to happen.
Mr. Speaker, this is an area where we met with several other potential partners as well. We’ve had numerous discussions with different organizations on how we can move forward. This is an ongoing piece of work that’s before us. Probably this fall, Mr. Speaker, we will probably request an extension of the lease on the Northern United Place, as it stands right now. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer from the Minister there. I’d like to pursue, in my questioning, the area of partnership. As I understand it, the federal government has a P3 office suited for public partnerships, public, private, and institutions like Aurora College would fit into this particular case. Mr. Speaker, what has the Minister done to support the long-term planning of Aurora College with the private partners that do exist out there? I am aware that there are two potentially wanting to work with Aurora College, so I think we have an opportunity of interest. How does the Minister see his department helping that? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there has been a couple meetings a few years back on potential partners, private partners, organizations, but the information has been brought back to our attention as we need to move forward. Those are the discussions that we’ve had in the past and we are open to ideas and suggestions on how we can move forward. There have been talks about having possibly a First Nations organization build a facility for us and lease it back to the GNWT. That was an option that was thrown at us, but we haven’t seen anything as a proposal or anything that we can move forward on.
Mr. Speaker, this is an area that I’ve also met with INAC Minister Mr. Strahl, a former Minister, and also dealing with the INAC office in Ottawa, identifying a three territorial jurisdictions MOU we talked about. This is of real high interest for us and we need to discuss it further.
Mr. Speaker, would the Minister of Education be willing to commit to see if he could bring those partners to the table with Aurora College to discuss about putting forward a joint proposal to P3 Canada to take advantage of those opportunities? I won’t name the particular parties here in the House, for obvious reasons. They may not have publicly committed their interest at this stage so I don’t want to put them on the spot. Would the Minister be willing to commit to bringing these parties to the table in short order so a proposal could be put forward? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we’re definitely open to discuss any potential opportunities with respect to a facility or programming. We did have a meeting in the past. I’m sure those individuals or organizations are listening to these House proceedings, so by all means, if they want to meet with us as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we are more than willing to meet with them. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In speaking to the Board of Governors last month when they were here in Yellowknife having their Board of Governors meeting, I know they are specifically targeting a long-term solution for the Yellowknife Campus. They need a solution that works, and the present solution in the NUP does not work. They are looking beyond that and they need someone to help lead that partnership role. That’s why I’m asking, would the Minister, once again, commit to seeing if he could pull the Aurora College president’s office as well as those potential partners together to develop a joint proposal for P3 Canada? Thank you.
I also met with the Board of Governors on that same day, probably before or after Mr. Hawkins. We talked about the same issue. My understanding is that the Board of Governors will bring an idea forward to our attention within the ECE department. So we are waiting for the Board of Governors to bring us information that we can work on. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement. The people of Fort Liard had serious concerns about the social worker position. Minister Lee had accompanied me to Fort Liard and we heard the residents at that time. They were very concerned that the social worker was away for about three months for medical leave, Mr. Speaker. We had asked if we can fill it with a casual worker position, but the Minister responded to myself, and I responded to the community, that they will not fill this position on a casual basis. I still don’t understand why. The residents still don’t understand why. I would like to ask Minister Lee to explain why they won’t fill that position on a casual basis. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; I had responded to him on this issue on November 12th last year. There were specific personnel details involved with this position that made it difficult to fill the position at that time, but it has been three months since. I would be happy to undertake to see where we are at and get back to him. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly would like to take the Minister’s commitment and move forward with that. Maybe I can ask the Minister what would be the next steps on following through on this commitment. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as the Member stated, the incumbent is away from the job for personal reasons. I need to inquire as to where that situation is. Secondly, that position cannot be filled by a casual because of the statutory obligations and requirements that need to be placed on a worker. That couldn’t be done for a casual, but if it is a situation that the person has to be away longer, we have to look at filling the position or filling it temporarily. Once again, I will undertake to look into that and get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services, getting back to my Member’s statement. In 2005 the Legislative Assembly brought in the Protection Against Family Violence Act, an act the Minister is well aware of. Also, we have developed a Framework for Action Against Family Violence. That is going into the second stage of that. I would like to ask the Minister why the incidents of spousal assault have gone up 107 percent increase in the last four years, from 309 to 640. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to first off commend the Member for saying that he will participate in the V-Day events and I would be happy to cooperate with the Member on that event. Secondly, I am not sure if I could give him exact reasons why we are experiencing increased numbers of family violence, but we do keep detailed statistics on that. Thirdly, this government has increased funding and programs in the family violence area in many different ways over the last three years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I highlighted some of the things the government has been doing over the last three years, but the statistics don’t lie, Mr. Speaker. There is a 107 percent increase in the last four years of incidents of spousal assault in the Northwest Territories. The Minister didn’t answer the question. How is the Minister and the government going to evaluate the success of the measures that we brought in, the legislation that we brought in as well as the action plan on family violence? How is that going to be evaluated, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we are in the third phase of the Action Plan on Family Violence. Part of the plan is to have it evaluated. I will undertake to look at where we are with the evaluation and share it with the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that is what scares me. I am not sure why the Minister can’t stand up today and articulate what exactly the government is going to do to address the fact that spousal assault in the Northwest Territories has increased 107 percent under their watch. What are you going to do about that matter, Minister? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I could say not what we are going to do, but what we are actually doing right now and what we have been doing for the last three years we will continue to do with the support of all the Members on the other side, we as an Assembly have made a full commitment to addressing the family violence issue. We have increased funding under the Shelter Stablilzation Fund. We have also expanded our Family Violence Program funding to communities where there are no shelters, so we have enhanced funding for those communities with shelters and we made funding available for communities without shelters. We have also invested money on children who witness violence. But as the Member stated so well in his statement, there are many factors involved in combating family violence. We work in partnerships with the NGOs to continue to address this issue. That is a serious issue for all of us without one quick simple answer. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Mr. Speaker, judging by the statistics, what we are doing currently is not working. I would suggest that the Minister try to find a way forward that will get those numbers trending the right way, and that is back towards the historic low in 2006, to 309. There shouldn’t be any assault in the Northwest Territories, but if there is going to be a way to trend, it should be the other way, Mr. Speaker.
We have five family violence shelters in the Northwest Territories. The Minister has talked about a Shelter Stabilization Plan. Are there any plans to expand the availability of the shelters in more of the communities than are presently served by family violence shelters today? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I could tell you that the shelters that we have now are having a hard time finding providers, so our focus for now has to be in strengthening the shelters that we have, but understanding that there are communities without shelters that need our assistance as well. We are providing and supporting that. We need to concentrate on that.
As to why we are seeing an increase in the number, I am sure we will have to do a more in-depth analysis on that, but the NWT has not been spared from the economic downtown. Often when there is economic downturn, lots of facts show that family violence and other social problems arise. Perhaps with a more longitudinal time period, we could see that. We hope that with the economic recovery, the numbers go down as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the youth. Certainly we do our best to support the youth. We want to keep our youth alive. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what types of programs are in her department that would gear towards working with the youth and specifically the elders in terms of having them come together and look at programs or initiatives that they can do to support each other in the challenges that both the elders and the youth face today.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a lot of programs and funding that the department provides to communities, whether it be through authorities, NGOs, Aboriginal governments. Sometimes we get funding from the federal government. Some programs involve just working with the youth on suicide prevention. We do have programs that work with elders and youth. I would be happy to present the Member with all of the details that he requires. I don’t have it right in front of me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Can the Minister provide to me and the House in terms of types of specifically cultural programs that could be used in our small communities which are primarily in my region, primarily Aboriginal communities in regard to how to deal with these types of issues and if there are ways that they involve elders through the languages?
Yes, we do have those and we work with other departments and agencies on cultural and language components. I will undertake to have that as part of the reply I provide to him. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya. Thank you. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to the response that was tabled in this House yesterday. Mr. Speaker, the area I have concerns about is recommendation number 4. The reason for us that number 4 was at the top of the list was because we thought that was doable. Mr. Speaker, the recommendation states that to ensure funding for prevention and early intervention programs in every community, and also to present it in the Legislative Assembly’s 2010-2011 budget. But, Mr. Speaker, the response by the Minister clearly stipulates that they cannot get it into the 2011-2012 budget. Mr. Speaker, the budget hasn’t been passed yet. So I’d like to ask the Minister if she can work with Members of this House to implement recommendation number 4 in the budget process we’re going through now. Thank you.
Hear! Hear!
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my opening statement to my budget on Friday I stated a couple of programs that we are expanding to Inuvik and Fort Simpson, Healthy Children Initiatives.
Mr. Speaker, I think everybody here knows how the budget process works. A major initiative such as this will require significant funding and the timing issue... Their report came out after we went through the business plan review. The Members had a chance to have a look at this budget in January and the Members are aware that it was not part of that budget.
Mr. Speaker, I think it’s really important for us to state and I’d like to state that we have, in every way possible, worked to respond favourably to the report. We have accepted 61 out of 73 recommendations, and even the 10 that we are not able to accept as it is written, we explain in detail why that is so. So I can tell the Member that we are committed to providing the substantiation as a department to look at these additional funding initiatives in the next business cycle, but given our fiscal pressure, unless we take out something that’s already in the budget it would not be possible for us to add a new program, to add an Early Childhood Intervention Program in every community in this budget. Thank you.
Again, this has been tabled in the House last fall. We’ve given the Minister ample time to bring forward the budget. In the budget right now there’s already $900,000 in regard to intervention or prevention programs. So we already have a category that we can work this into. It’s just a matter of moving the $12 million that’s in that portfolio to the areas where it’s important.
Mr. Speaker, this was a very important element of the consultation that took place. Community members and individuals wanted to ensure…
Do you have a question, Mr. Krutko?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell us exactly how can communities prevent children from being taken away from their communities and working with the families and the children before it gets to this stage where you have to apprehend?
Thank you. If the Member could provide me with more information on what he said that’s within my budget that I should re-look at, I’d be happy to do that.
On page 8-30 of the budget under child services, intervention services, $858,000. That is something we can work with. I’d like to ask the Minister, can you seriously consider reprofiling these dollars and put it in the area of prevention and intervention?
The department already spends a lot of money and effort on prevention and the recommendations suggest that we must expend that, which we, in principle, agree with, we need to come up with the resources. But I will have to look at the section that the Member is referring to because I am certain that we have every cent of that accounted for. So if we’re going to talk about reprofiling that, we need to have the full scope of the information so we know exactly what we’re changing.
I’m sure as we go through debating our budget in the next couple of days we will have a chance to do that, but I’d be happy to engage with the Members on the other side about what choices we’re prepared to make, because without knowing even all of the details, I am certain that every cent of that is spoken for and there will be repercussions. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
