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.
