Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will endeavour to be slow.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say thank you before my questions that I am grateful that the Premier's staff has reached out to YWCA-NWT and begin to address some of their concerns, but I still have some additional ones to discuss today, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell me if due to EIA's function of both coordinating the policy of A Way Home and the NGO sector support initiative and as the department that houses the gender equity unit, if he will consider directing EIA to coordinate and lead a policy approach in partnership with NGOs that run family violence shelters across the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this is an issue that cuts across a number of different departments. Housing NWT is actually responsible for the coordination of the homelessness strategy although EIA does continue to play a role in there, and health and social services, as the establishment policy of that department, gives it authority over family violence and family violence shelters and the funding. So it goes beyond just EIA, and I wouldn't want to make a commitment and commit the Minister of the Status of Women and the Minister of health to something without having a conversation first. So now that this has been raised with me, I am happy to go have a conversation with them and look at -- have the discussion about this going forward. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Premier for that. I am glad the conversation can at least start.
Mr. Speaker, will the Premier reply to the YWCA-NWT regarding their financial ask of $340,000 for the 2026-2027 fiscal year and to direct EIA staff to assist them in finding appropriate ongoing funding for the safe homes in both Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as the Member mentioned, staff have reached out to have conversations with the YWCA about ongoing funding. I recognize the important work that NGOs do, and they do it at a fraction of the cost that the Government of the Northwest Territories can do it. So we always want to make sure that we are supporting them to the extent we can.
The program that has sunsetting funding is a federal program and so, you know, we see this quite often in the territory where the federal government will see an opportunity to fund something that's their flavour of the day I guess, and they'll put a time limit on it, and then they'll fund it, and then the new government comes in and that funding ends, and then we're in had the situation we find ourselves in now where we have these homes established, we have people working at them, but there's no funding, and so of course people look to the territorial government.
I will respond to the letter to the YWCA. I expected to be able to respond sometime this week, maybe even today. I won't guarantee today, but sometime this week I can assure the Member that I will get a response. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell me if he sees value in and whether he would consider a round table or working group of NGO, community, and Indigenous government partners on how to effectively coordinate family violence shelters in safe homes across the NWT aligning with the MMIWG Call for Justice 4.7. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And EIA does work with NGOs. We have a very, very small unit, extraordinarily small unit with only a couple people in there so it's difficult to overcommit ourselves. Right now we are focusing on service integration with a specific focus on homelessness and people who are at risk of become homeless. And so that unit doesn't have a lot of additional horsepower to take on other roles. That being said, I am happy to speak with the other two Ministers who are involved in this and have a conversation because I do see the value in having some sort of coordination. When you have a number of different organizations that don't have a coordinating body or necessarily working together, there's obviously things that could be missed there, and so I do see the value it in. So I will have the conversation with my colleagues on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
