Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are following up on my Member’s statement yesterday on the report from the Coalition Against Family Violence. They are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and Deputy Premier. Recent statistics, sadly, show that family violence continues to get worse. Two hundred and thirty-eight women and children came forward to violence shelters for the first time in 2010-11; that’s new incidents. NWT women seek escape from violence and shelter at five times the national rate. Ninety-two percent of 27,000 people responding to the 2007 survey said more shelters are critically needed and, of course, phase 3 recommendations call for special initiative funds for family violence shelters outside of Yellowknife, to top up their funding so they can pay better wages, add hours, and meet O and M costs. Will the Minister start now to identify funds to meet this need? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government is committed to all the obligations that are there for phase 2. To date, through the life of phase 2 we will have committed nearly $4 million. This is an ongoing issue and as we move forward from phase 2 to phase 3, that work will go through the business planning process, and in this instance, while preparatory work will be done, it will be a decision in the life of the 17th Assembly on how we will proceed further. Thank you.
I appreciate the commitment from the Minister. The 238 women and children last year, Mr. Speaker, the major coalition partners like the YWCA Yellowknife, the Centre for Northern Families, Inuvik, Hay River and Tuk shelters, NWT Seniors, Salvation Army and a host of others are our long-established and indispensible leaders and service providers in this area. So why is core funding for multi-year funding agreements for these groups even an issue? These partners are in for the long haul and shouldn’t be made to flounder between annual funding agreements.
So I ask: will the Minister commit to partnering respectfully with these enduring organizations and move to multi-year agreements with core funding as a standard model? Mahsi.
I’ve always, as well, been an advocate of multi-year funding and I will be working with the Department of Health and Social Services to review the list to make sure that we can do multi-year funding in all the cases where it makes good sense.
The Member raises the enduring relationships we have with some of these ongoing programs, and that is one of the critical factors, in my mind. Thank you.
Thanks for the commitment from the Minister, once again. Mr. Speaker, last session I spoke of overlap and duplication and the development of programs for men who use violence with a GNWT program that had been developed without even the knowledge of all coalition partners. The coalition was created as a clearing house of this work and is recommending a three-year community-based pilot program to create a territorial program standard. Will the Minister commit to working with his Cabinet colleagues to support this program and ensure that the departments use the coalition forum as their partners as their focus of consultation and collaboration? Mahsi.
We will continue to work constructively with the Family Violence Coalition. We, as well, will look closely at the work that’s been done in regard to the recommendations for phase 3. As well, we are doing, at this moment, an evaluation of how effective our commitment and involvement has been and the outcomes that have been generated through the work through phase 2. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks again for the Minister’s comments. I guess I would just ask: will the Minister commit to keeping the House apprised and committee apprised with as much faithfulness as I commit to bringing forward concerns that I hear from the coalition to the Minister? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will ensure that we work closely with the Social Programs committee and keep them apprised of events as they progress, and work as it’s done, and any milestone issues that would be in the interests of the committee to know about. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
