Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The YWCA states that in the last year only 20 per cent of abused women utilized shelters, while the other 80 per cent continued to be beaten. This government must ensure that women who have been beaten are able to seek safe shelter. Last year only 2.4 of the male abusers had access to counselling to stop their violent behaviour. Last year, children made up 51 per cent of those in shelters. However, there have been no new resources
made available for these children in order to stop the cycle of violence.
There is a group called CLASS, Casaw Ladies Association of Support Services, that represents 240 families whose family members are on strike at Royal Oak mine. They fund raise in order to take care of their own, but if this strike goes on much longer, they will have to turn to Social Services for assistance to feed their families. They object to the over $50,000 a days pent on the riot squad, which serves to inflame tempers and increase the potential for violence.
The Association of Community Living states that the territorial government spends $100,000 each year for every mentally handicapped person from the NWT living in a southern institution. The Yellowknife Women's Centre states social assistance recipients, many of whom are children, are constantly placed in jeopardy by government failure to abide by their own child welfare and financial assistance legislation and regulations. An adult on social assistance received only$184 per month for food and personal care items. Our cost of living is 25 per cent higher than the cost of living in Alberta, where an adult receives the same rate of $184.
The Native Women's Association of the Northwest Territories would like to bring the Government of the Northwest Territories' attention to programs and services. The Native Women's Association would like to state that they fully support programs and services that would address the issues and concerns that face aboriginal families in the areas of family violence. We support, they say, the wishes and desires of aboriginal communities, in that they must be allowed to identify and initiate their own programs and services.
In the recent release from the Commission on Western Constitutional Development, one of the recommendations was that the aboriginal communities receive recognition and funding for the healing process to begin in preparation for the transfer of programs and a move toward self-government.
Mr. Speaker, the group's goal is that they would respectfully request that the Assembly put aside their differences and work together as a team in order to address these pressing issues. There are dysfunctional communities, caught in a vicious cycle of violence, substance abuse, illiteracy and substandard housing conditions, that cannot properly benefit from decentralization or economic development. They ask that we commit ourselves to help the people first, and ask for a budget that reflects that commitment. They cannot see cuts to service delivery positions or to helping groups or agencies. They want to see cuts, instead, to government management and administration, cuts to all unnecessary government travel, particularly outside the NWT, and cuts to all non-essential construction. They want to see the government helping NWT organizations maximize, and they do not want to use outside consultants and groups. They would like it to minimize and eventually eliminate all outside consultants and groups. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-Applause