Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. When he was a member of the Social Programs Standing Committee, he and his colleagues made 70 recommendations on the Child and Family Services Act. The committee report says: "We also recognize that some of our most important recommendations will require investment. The committee believes very strongly that the future of the NWT children and families warrants this investment." That was nine years ago. What happened to those recommendations? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wept when the Office of the Auditor General reviewed its latest findings of the Child and Family Services audit. They concluded for the second time in four years that Child and Family Services is failing children in care; not just failing them, but sometimes putting them at risk of even greater harm than the circumstances that brought them into care in the first place. A child has been assaulted. Another was missing from a treatment program.

For example, health authorities must investigate a report of a child in a potentially unsafe situation within 30 days...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker:

"Spousal assault in the Northwest Territories is a social problem of grave proportions. Wives, husbands and lovers have their eyes blackened, their teeth knocked out, their ribs and legs broken, their bodies bruised, and their lives disfigured by violence as a result of assaults which occur daily in the Northwest Territories. For many victims, beatings are regular and frequent."

"Spousal assault strikes at the heart of family and community life. It reaches every part of our society. Many of those who assault were raised in families where spousal assault has taken...

Thank you for that confirmation. I don't really have any further questions on this point. I have a comment that there will need to be, I think, some help for the YWCA to continue the Transitional Housing Program, but I realize that it is not covered in this supp. Thank you.

That's a trick question because the page now looks different.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the barges are in crisis, there is money to be found immediately, and the problem is on its way to resolution. Now that we are in the fourth year of this Assembly, the Minister is making a business case for more resources for family violence. I can't say it's too little, too late. Everything is appreciated, but the fact is that this area needs serious attention. It needs new initiatives, and I'm looking for a commitment for the Minister of action, not just talking. Is he able to make that commitment? Mahsi.

The Minister can find the report in the library, or I can lend him my copy, and he can have a read of it. What I hear him saying is that he's going to create an echo chamber of government departments speaking to one another rather than consulting with people who are front-line service providers or who have a stake in this system as victims, as batterers, and so on. Why can't this work include a broader array of people than simply having people within government talk to one another?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to have the nursing and social work students here, in the House, today. I would particularly like to recognize Jordan Erickson, Jody Prince, and Candice Ferdinand who are joining us today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Government of the Northwest Territories has supported the YWCA with a grant in kind by making the Rockhill Apartment available through the Transitional Housing Program, and it is my understanding that this grant in kind has been deleted because the building burned down. Could the Minister confirm that is the case?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, under Community Health Programs, I see that there's an expenditure to provide funding for an extension of a grant in-kind related to the renewal of the lease with the Young Women's Christian Association for the Rock Hill Apartments. Can the Minister give us an update on the status of that grant in-kind, given the fact that the building has burned down? Thank you.