Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was reminded of a circumstance of a person that you might find yourself in, and that's facing a crisis. I was reminded that yesterday in terms of the discussion on child and family services. You face a crisis. Say, like you're in this boat that's sinking, and the captain tells you, well, stay calm and relax. Despite not having a life jacket, you are going to be okay. Yesterday, that's what I was told. Unfortunately, that is the reality and challenges that we are faced with.
My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. The mandate priority of the 18th Assembly was to address the whole issue of family violence as a crisis, and we've made efforts to address family violence. We look to our Cabinet colleagues, the Minister for their leadership role. I know there's been efforts like the New Day Program, and there is efforts to maintain shelters in each region, communities. Can the Minister update this House, the steps his department has taken to address the mandate priority that we set aside to address family violence? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a zero-based budget exercise conducted during the 2017-2018 fiscal year was done to help inform a funding model for shelters here, in the Northwest Territories. That work has had significant progress. From there, we will be proposing some increases in the funds available to the shelters throughout the Northwest Territories for the next budget cycle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to thank the Minister for his reply. The other question that I have, we need to get beyond the attitudes in terms of the whole crisis of family violence in communities. We need to try to at least have some discussions and some of the cultural, and the barriers that we have to go through. One of the challenges in my view, we need to ensure that the initiatives that we undertake has a wide roll out, that it's not just perhaps, that Yellowknife is basically making statements on family violence. The regions and communities have to be involved. How is the Minister and his department undertaking to ensure that communities and regions are involved and families are involved with the discussion of trying to bring down the rates of family violence?
Once again, the Department of Health and Social Services isn't alone in working to address family violence. We are one of the partner departments that come up with solutions and programs that will help us reduce the incidence of family violence. However, having said that, the Department of Health and Social Services is doing a number of things. One of the things that we do is we fund the, What Will it Take? campaign. In that vein, we are working on some new videos to help address family violence and create awareness. One of them is going to be on consent, and that work is currently being done. There is a video for adults being done, as well as a video for youth, and there is also another video on elder abuse, and the filming is currently being done in early December. That work is being done in Fort Good Hope. There is an advisory group of elders supporting this video, so we are reaching out to people outside of Yellowknife to create more product and more campaigns to help us address this.
Mr. Speaker, we are also working on a shelter awareness campaign. This is an NWT-wide campaign to raise awareness about shelter services and how people can access them. The department does have a contribution agreement with the Hay River Family Support Centre in partnership with the "Y" here in Yellowknife, so once again, we're not just relying on input from those in Yellowknife, but input from those across the Northwest Territories who are on the front lines of addressing family violence.
We are doing the work, Mr. Speaker. We are doing the work. Obviously, more needs to be done. We hear you, and we are planning to make some improvements starting the next fiscal year when we make the proposal to increase funding for shelters.
Throughout my thoughts, my statement, and the questions that I have, I wanted to come to a common understanding, and I wanted to hear some good news. Get a status in terms of whether indeed we are addressing our mandate, and look and to see if there's ways from this side of the House we could help the leadership in terms of the Minister leading the charge against addressing family violence in the North. I think we have to get beyond the whole stage of denial and admit that we have a problem, and that's a big challenge that I see. Has the Minister, in his eyes, ensured that this is crisis levels that warrants a crisis response? Is the Minister confident that we have done all that we can to address family violence?
There are societal issues around this, and that we need to do more, and we need to continue to work together to destroy the stigma that exists around family violence. We have heard positive statements about the work we're doing with What Will it Take?, but we acknowledge that we need to continue to evolve and develop more programs and more awareness around family violence, which is why we are moving forward with these new videos that talk about consent. One is being done for adults; one is being done for youth. We're also talking about elder abuse, as it falls under family violence, and we are working with partners. We are trying to bring more. This is what we are proposing for this particular budget cycle, but there will be more. We have to continue to evolve, we have to continue to get the message out there, and we have to continue to work together.
Mr. Speaker, we have a number of videos out already, and I would strongly encourage the Member and all Members to re-distribute these videos through your social media campaigns, through your social media means. We need to work together to get the message out there and continue to destroy the stigma, break it down and have people talk about it. The more people are fighting against it, the better the results will be. It's going take all of us, Mr. Speaker. What Will it Take?
Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question is more likely to be two questions. The first question would be: does the Minister feel we have done all we can to address our priority in the 18th Assembly by addressing family violence? Or does he also feel that this whole challenge would probably flow into the 19th Assembly? Masi.
The Member is asking for an opinion regarding a Minister's feelings. I will allow the Minister to respond if he wishes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, domestic violence and family violence in the Northwest Territories is a long-standing problem, and we, as an Assembly, we as a group of 19 Members, have made it a mandate item. To that end, we have done work to develop a formula, and we've also improved and increased the amount of information we have out there to help break down the stigma.
Mr. Speaker, in the life of this Assembly, we are intending to and we will increase the funding that we provide to shelters. Is it, alone, enough to solve the problem of family violence here, in the Northwest Territories? Absolutely not, but it is an important part of the puzzle, as is creating additional awareness. One of the Members earlier today talked about forming another committee.
Mr. Speaker, we have relationships with important organizations that are doing important things to curb family violence here, in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Justice is doing a number of things as well. Do I think we've solved the problem of domestic violence in this Assembly? Absolutely not. Do I think we've taken important steps to help address it? Absolutely. Can more be done, and will more be done? Absolutely.
This is going to continue into the next Assembly because we're not going to find that magical light switch that turns off domestic violence. It's going to take all of us championing together, working together, getting the message out there, and opposing all those that are committing domestic violence, and telling them that it's wrong and that they need to take account for their actions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
