Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every night up to 23 women find shelter from violent and abusive homes. If there were no Centre for Northern Families, these victims would have nowhere to go. We can imagine the financial and human cost of their being trapped in dangerous situations.
Just putting these people in a $100 per night hotel room would cost the GNWT more than twice the $409,000 in annual funding provided by the GNWT. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if she can tell me what contingency plan and at what cost is being put in place to replace the programs and services lost if the centre closes its doors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I am well aware of the fact that the Centre for Northern Families provides a very valuable service to marginalized and vulnerable homeless women living in Yellowknife. I am also aware that the centre has experienced cash flows and debt issues and that it is having a difficult financial time. Our department and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment have been working with the Centre for Northern Families. We will continue to work to look at what the financial challenges are and look for some solutions as to how we could go about working on debt reduction and increasing capacity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate that support from the Minister. Hopefully it came from the department. I am certain that if it didn’t, it came from the centre in making sure the government has been involved. Again, I don’t know what support is being offered there. I don’t know what assurance there is. Is the Minister committing to assure us that the centre will not be closed and its programs will continue? I will leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the financial difficulties of the centre has been an issue that has been ongoing for many, many years. The government has provided funding to the centre under different programs. We very much value the services that they provide. What we need to do is to work with them. We are working with them to find out more of the details about their financial difficulties and then to see how we could…We need to determine what is being underfunded and what options we have to secure their financial stability. Right now we don’t have all of the details on their financial situation in terms of exactly what is leading to the deficit situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would ask why the Minister isn’t on top of the details, but I’m sure we would hear nothing and use up a lot of time in response. I would like to know, Mr. Speaker -- the increase in the budget for the centre that has happened over the years is pitiful compared to the forced growth increases in this government over the last five years alone -- what is the Minister doing to address this shortfall and to start providing real support in terms of real costs that are being dealt with in dealing with real human lives? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I don’t think it is helpful for us to go through all of the financial details. I think there is some disagreement about what should be funded and such, but I just want to say I am proud of the work that the centre does. I recognize the important work that the centre does. It is an integral part of a spectrum of services that we need to provide not only in Yellowknife, but also for a lot of people that use their service all across the Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud, actually, of the level of funding that we have provided to the centre too, so it is not always about how much money you receive. I could give you the details of how much government has funded over the years. The fact is, we agreed that this centre is under financial difficulty. We are saying, along with the Education, Culture and Employment staff who are our senior management and have been meeting with the centre to get to more clear and precise answers as to why we are where we are in terms of their financial difficulty and what options we have to resolve those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
The Minister seems to insist on talking about details, and thinking that I am asking for details, and insisting she needs more details, and insisting on meeting about more details. What is needed here is decisive action to support this centre that provides a very important service. For example, this centre is paying $40,000 per year for rent on the building that they are in to the Housing Corporation. Is the Minister acting to work to get that forgiven or to provide funding specifically for that?
The Centre for Northern Families has an option to provide important advice to the child and family services review. Will the Minister provide support so that the centre can provide that important advice? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in the fiscal year 2007-08, we have government departments combined, between Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment, the Housing Corporation and MACA, about $940,000 to the organization. I understand and I appreciate; I am not going to challenge that. I have too much respect for the work that this centre does to argue about details of the money here, because I want to respect their privacy rights and such.
What I am saying is we value the work that they do. We are committed to working with them to support them, and that, in order for us to ensure financial stability of this organization in the long run, we need to get at what is causing the shortfall.
I believe that most of their debt is with Revenue Canada and it is not something that we could deal with by just writing the cheque. We need to get to the bottom of how do we work together and how do we get the long-term solution. I am committed as a Minister to have our officials meet and work together on that. They have met a number of times with the board and we will continue to do so.
With respect to funding for the standing committee process, I believe that is a separate budget item in this House that has to be dealt with by the committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
