Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to continue my conversation with the Minister of Justice in regard to domestic violence. I apologize; I hope I am not putting too much pressure on her. My first question is just in regard to the resource that I requested earlier. I am just wondering if, while we are waiting for Cabinet to choose a lead department, the Department of Justice would be prepared to take on creating those resources for victims of domestic violence? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Departments of Justice and Finance will be so excited today. As I have said, I already have committed to ensuring that I will report back to this House as to the best place in which we are going to house the issue of domestic violence and solving domestic violence, and when I make that report, I will report back on where and who will be working to bring the resources together.
There are times where having a specific and defined resource is to the benefit of someone with a specific, defined issue; there may be other times where an individual wants to get all of the resources without having to go and put them all together, as the Member has very well defined and described today the challenges of that. What I will simply say is that I will take it upon myself to be the one who reports back here and explains how we are going to do that, likely by going back first to the interdepartmental working group that already exists. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Not the answer I was looking for, but I will live with it for now and hopefully won't end up putting it together on my own. My second question is in regard to the Canada-wide action plan. I am wondering how long we are prepared to wait for information from Canada to come. Do we have a threshold of when we are going to decide to go out and create our own action plan, or will we be patient and wait for the Canada-wide one? I am wondering if Cabinet has decided as a group that we are going to wait until the end of this year and then move forward with our own plan, just so that we know, on this side of the room, what our expectations for timelines should be.
While I have spoken here many times about the value that I place on partnerships with the federal government, I will also say very plainly that I do not think we always need to wait for others to do work that is relevant to our own residents. I can't give a defined date, but I am happy to also point out, as I had missed earlier, that the interdepartmental working group that I have mentioned has actually commissioned research through the Aurora Research Institute about best practices to address domestic violence and intimate partner violence here in the Northwest Territories. What I would like to do and suggest is that I will wait until we have that back, see what that recommends, and at that point, we can move forward and determine whether that will be the foundation for an action plan or not.
I am wondering what the expected deadline is on that plan from that institute and if we will be able to see it on this side of the House as soon as Justice receives it.
I have seen that date, but I don't remember if offhand, to be very honest. I will find out. I will get back to the Member. Certainly, to this point, it has been my practice to try to get all of these types of reports and evaluations over to the other Members as quickly as possible. Not quite a commitment, but that has at least been my intent and my working practice thus far. Unless there's something about this report that I am unaware of, being that it was commissioned by an outside entity, that would otherwise be my expectation.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
