Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Mr. Speaker, in my statement, I was talking about a law that's been enacted in other parts of our country, and I'm curious to know, does the Minister know if there are any such laws or regulations around sorry, that are in place in the NWT, and if so, could she elaborate on what they are? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time, to my knowledge, there is no equivalent legislation in the Northwest Territories akin to the Clare's Law system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm curious to know what the Minister's take is on a law such as Clare's Law. I know that the Minister in her prior life was a criminal defense lawyer so I know she has a lot of experience in this area, as well has done a lot in her volunteering time with women's groups. So I'm curious to know what her thoughts are on a law like Clare's Law and would it work for us here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of course we sort of shed our past lives a little bit as Ministers. So, you know but I can speak to the issue from the perspective as a Minister responsible for the Status of Women. And certainly I know the Member appreciates, this is an area that it involves obviously the Minister of Justice. It would involve potentially Health and Social Services as they do work with women's shelters as well as other ministries across the government.
The challenge with a proposal such as a Clare's Law, which certainly could well fall within my responsibility to promote, is to strike the balance between empowering women by giving them the information women or others, to empower them with information about an abuser or a potential abuser or potential situation, while at the same time not putting the onus on a victim of violence or their family to be the ones that have to go and seek out the information and to not then allow others to say, well, if you had the information, you ought to have acted differently. So there's a lot of policy issues at play. But at the same time, the fact of having the question of what we can do to fundamentally empower women in those situations is really the discussion to be had. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister's response. It's so easy to get caught up sort of in a black and white idea of things and then every time I have a great idea and I go talk to someone, I realize the multitude of reasons why it potentially isn't going to work. And so we always have to find that middle path so I do appreciate that.
I know, again, that this is probably likely in other departments as well but I'd like for the Minister to maybe speak a little bit around family shelters or intimatepartner shelters. It's my understanding we only have those in Yellowknife. And perhaps maybe the Minister could speak to how she is working with the staff and others to establish safe places for families and women and children in communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate having a sense of where some questions go because it gives a chance for those of us working multidepartmentally to have some conversations and thanks to the folks at Health and Social Services, I can note there are in fact five territorial family violence shelters across different regions of the Northwest Territories. And I'm also pleased to note that given that these are territorial resources, that travel can be provided for women and children who live in communities outside of one with a shelter and no one should ever think that not having a shelter in their community would take away the opportunity to travel. It certainly makes it harder, Mr. Speaker, but I want to encourage that there are resources to support people who need to use those resources.
On a similar note, Mr. Speaker, we have recently filled the position of a family violence coordinator which will help support further development and coordination in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was going to leave my last question to sort of mull over what the Minister had responded and then ask her something based on that. So instead I'm just going to get in some favour with my colleague here from Thebacha and ask her, is that position a position in Yellowknife, or is it one that's been located outside of the capital? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that as a confirmed. I expect it is likely a Yellowknife position, Mr. Speaker, although, again, I'm not entirely certain. It is joining in the sense of being a coordinator position and one that certainly will have to work interdepartmentally with a lot of departments and will certainly be expected to be coordinating work across the regions. Again, I'll have to confirm but that's the expectation I have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
