Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a follow-up to my Member's statement. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, what support and resources can the Department of Health and Social Services offer to communities seeking to establish safe houses for women and children experiencing family violence? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services currently contributes about $2.55 million to family violence shelters across the Northwest Territories. In addition, we make an additional $200,000 available to help individuals who are in communities where there are no shelters with transport or to get themselves to communities where there are shelters.
In light of the Member's question, I have also taken the additional step of directing the Department of Health and Social Services to work closely with the Department of Infrastructure to explore some of the different federal infrastructure pots that have been identified and announced to see if any of those are dollars we might be able to use to support family violence shelters across the Northwest Territories moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister already answered my second question, so I'll ask the third. Mr. Speaker, if a woman needs to leave a violent partner and an unsafe home but there is no local safe house or shelter and no resident RCMP officer, what resources are available for her?
As I indicated, we do have money in our budget to actually support individuals to get to communities where there are some family violence shelters, but also recognizing that the last thing we want to do is having individuals who are fleeing family violence end up homeless. I have had a number of conversations with the Minister responsible for Homelessness about how we can incorporate this particular issue into our work on homelessness here in the Northwest Territories to see what we can do to support individuals who are fleeing family violence.
Mr. Speaker, there is currently a territorial Family Violence Shelter Network which is made up of the different family violence shelters in the Northwest Territories. I would strongly encourage the Member to talk to his community and have his community get in touch with that family Violence Network to see how they can work together to support those individuals who are fleeing family violence at a community level.
I have directed the department, and on September 18th staff from the department did meet with that network to begin the conversations of a formula funding arrangement to fund these shelters so that we can make sure to get the appropriate dollars to provide the valuable services that they do.
I think there's a good opportunity here for the community at a community level to work with that network to make sure that we're addressing the problem holistically rather than fragmented and individualized. I think there is great opportunity here, Mr. Speaker.
What kind of response can a family expect when calling for these services, especially on weekends?
As we've moved forward with the single system here in the Northwest Territories, we're focused on providing customer or client services that meet the needs of our residents. I would strongly encourage that the Member have individuals who are facing these challenges get in touch with social services who will hopefully be able to provide them with the guidance to help them get to family violence shelters around the Northwest Territories
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned that they are awaiting federal funding to see if there is anything that will fit these situations here. Can the Minister, in the near future, expect to have family violence shelters like a safe house in our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The first step is obviously for the Department of Health and Social Services to work with Infrastructure to review the different pots that have been made available by the federal government to see what, if anything, fits nicely that we can actually use towards this end.
Also, as I have already indicated, we are working with the NWT Housing Corporation and the Minister responsible for Homelessness to make sure that we have opportunities or places where individuals could go when fleeing family violence. We do not know what pots necessarily might be able to cover this, but as this work gets done, I will certainly share the results with the Member and committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
