Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just made a statement about the Family Support Centre in Hay River, so I will forego a lengthy preamble.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about the funding formula that he committed to have developed. He stated that they would begin developing this a year after the Territorial Health Authority was amalgamated, and that was last August. We are about 10 months from that, now. I would like to ask the Minister: what is the status update of the funding formula for family violence shelters in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we continue to work on the development of the funding model that we hope will strengthen the ability of existing shelters to deliver services in an equitable manner throughout the Northwest Territories.
The department does remain in close contact with the shelter network about the work being done, and hearing their perspectives on that process and the formula, as well. Department staff did attend meetings with the shelter staff within the last couple of weeks, where we had an opportunity to discuss the formula, as well as the operational standards.
Mr. Speaker, we continue to move forward. Any funding implications with respect to adopting the standards and the model will be considered in the upcoming business planning process for next fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know that the funding formula is being drafted right now; they are still looking at it, but if you look at the way that the department is organized, I believe there is a family violence prevention position in there. There is funding through the Family Violence Prevention Program.
Shelters are tertiary care. They're not really prevention. With this new funding formula, will there be a focus on community outreach and education as well as just a place for people to go to flee violence? Will there actually be a focus on prevention as well?
At this time, the formula that we are talking about is funding the shelters to actually provide safe housing for families fleeing violence.
With respect to the other work, campaigns that we are doing to break the stigma, to help get people educated, to create more awareness, to create more discussion, those are being done with other groups, such as the Status of Women and other groups across the Northwest Territories and, at this point, does not anticipate providing advertising or communication dollars to the shelters. With the shelters, we are focusing on housing.
That is a bit disheartening, that they are not going to the people who know the most about this to do some work on prevention.
How is the government working with the Hay River Family Support Centre to acquire a new building? I know that there is federal money out there, but it is not always easily accessible. There are a million different applications you can fill out. There are a million different pots of money. There are all of these things going on, and it is difficult for one organization to navigate this world. How is the GNWT assisting the Family Support Centre in getting their new building?
Just to provide some clarity to the last response, of course, we are working with the shelters, because they usually have a significant impact on supporting families that are dealing with or fleeing violence. They have certainly got a lot of information to help us get good information out there into their hands, but when it comes to some of the individual programs we are running to create that awareness, currently, we are investing $477,000 as a territory for campaigns like What Will It Take and other means to get the information out there. We do work with the shelters closely because they are a great source of information.
With respect to the shelter in Hay River, the Minister of Finance, during the budget session, indicated that, should the shelter obtain or get to a position where they can acquire some money from the federal government, we are prepared to come to the table to support that process. If it requires money, the Minister of Finance could say that we would find it, but as far as leading that process, we are not doing that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned that there have been guidelines drafted up for the family violence shelters, and I think they are in their third decade of draft form. Has the government committed to finally finalizing these draft guidelines and taking this issue seriously? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The draft operational standards have been developed and are being reviewed to ensure they represent the safest and most sustainable approach to the delivery of family violence shelters. Our goal is to formally adopt those service standards over the coming year, and as I indicated previously, these standards will help us formulate a formula for funding, because it has to be based on something. It should be based on the standards that we work together with our shelters to develop. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
