Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to speak on the urgent situation facing the Centre for Northern Families. Every night up to 23 women have had to flee their homes and find safety at the centre. The centre further provides a prenatal nutrition program, a family support program, a daycare and early childhood development program, a weekly drop-in medical and sexually transmitted infection clinic for women, and a youth suicide prevention and addiction treatment program to name only a few, all important priorities of this government.
GNWT funding to the centre totals about $400,000 a year in return for this amazing array for vital services, which are nationally and internationally as well as locally recognized. Right now the centre faces a financial crisis, a deficit of about $350,000 including about $200,000 to Revenue Canada largely built up due to an unfortunate accounting failure, but no ill intent. This amount is roughly equal to the rent they pay the Housing Corporation for their building, which they cannot afford to purchase.
This House has been reviewing capital estimates and show significant cost overruns in some departments’ projects, some in the millions of dollars. It is not good, but these things happen and sometimes we have to look at how we fix critical problems and not point fingers of blame. While we casually approve millions of dollars for such overruns under the variably interpreted category of forced growth or unexpected expenditures, the Centre for Northern Families has asked for and been refused emergency funding to manage its deficit so its doors can remain open and its services continued.
I will be calling on the Minister today to take that action or explain how she intends to house 23 women in need of shelter each night. The centre’s executive director, Arlene Hache, will be in Ottawa on Friday to accept the Order of Canada for the very work…
---Applause
…for the very work that we are letting be terminated by refusing the required support or leading the charge to resolve. It will be a shame if Ms. Hache’s appearance on the national stage coincides with the forced closure of the Centre for Northern Families.
This also raises the larger issue of the current child and family services review.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, colleagues. This also raises the larger issue of the current child and family services review. Informed input from the Centre for Northern Families and other advocacy groups are critical to the success of that review. If we want good new law, we need the best experienced advice we can get. I will be asking the Minister what resources she intends to make available to the Centre for Northern Families and others to help them prepare a detailed, well researched input on the basis of the terms of reference just adopted by the House. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
