Julie Green

Masi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that. One of the things I spoke about in my statement was consent and the issue of raising public awareness around consent would be a multi-departmental issue. So you referenced the Cabinet Committee on Safety and Wellness; is this the kind of work that they might do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for that. So am I to understand that in addition to identifying whether there are rape kits in every place, that the Minister will also commit to ensuring each nursing station staff knows how to use them?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That's a logical solution to that issue. Given that contracting services are mainly provided through the shared services model, over which individual departments have very little authority, can the Minister please explain our current system for monitoring and evaluation to ensure that contracts meet departments' needs and the public gets the best value for money? Mahsi.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. In 2012, as the Minister is aware, the Auditor General of Canada released a status report on the 2009 audit on GNWT contracting for goods and services. They found that significant improvements had been made, but the errors were still found in 15 of 44 sample contracts. As a result, the Auditor General considered progress on contract administration to be unsatisfactory. Can the Minister tell us what improvements and quality assurance processes have been made since then?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to welcome many of the people who've already been welcomed: the staff from A New Day program; the leaders of the NWT Association of Communities; and I saw Alex Lambrecht, the new President of the Northern Territories Federation of Labour. I think it's really important for us to have leaders here who we can collaborate with and who support us in the things that we're doing. Thank you.

I beg your pardon, Mr. Speaker. May I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement?

---Unanimous consent granted

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to start by saying how very proud I am of my colleague Mr. Nadli. He has taken constructive steps to make himself a better man by starting on this healing journey, and we are all the better for it.

Mr. Speaker, women experience violence in greater numbers than men, but it's true that men also experience violence, and the effects of this violence include things like injuries, depression and other mental health issues, disease, addiction and even death. There are economic costs as well, mostly with loss in productivity but also the cost of treatment that...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to table the report "Hush Hush No More: Sexual Assault in the NWT." Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the report from the YWCA also references development of a new policy and guidelines for health providers on how to support clients who report sexual assault. I wonder if the Minister can tell us whether that work is now complete?

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. One of the issues revealed in the YWCA Study of Improving Responses to Sexual Assault is addressing confusion, especially in small communities, about where to find the kit used to collect evidence of an assault. What steps is the Minister going to take to ensure nursing station staff know where to find and how to use rape kits? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.