Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'm very pleased to second this motion. I would like, in speaking to the motion, to talk about the situation of shelter workers who are working for the Aggvik Society at the shelter in my constituency. This is because I know their situation best, Madam Speaker. I know that their situation is very similar to the plight of shelter workers throughout the Northwest Territories, in Mr. Gargan's riding, in your riding, Madam Speaker, and in other places where these people are working under great stress.
Who are these people, Madam Speaker? In my constituency they are, first of all, most likely to be either Inuit -- the vast majority -- or very long-term northern residents. They are women, and they are often single parents with between two to four children. They have served in this very stressful work place for up to four years, with breaks for maternity or stress leave. They are taking every opportunity available to get training in this very difficult work environment. In my constituency, they are taking shelter-worker training in the human services program at Arctic College, and I'm pleased to note that one worker has actually graduated with the human services diploma.
What do they do? What is this job? First of all, they work shifts and in Iqaluit there is often only one staff person with a daily or nightly average of 16 people in the house, including children. Typically, one of the clients is in crisis and needs very careful attention. Most clients, in fact, and their children are often in distress, and often they have been injured.
The staff members undertake a very broad range of duties. They answer the phone, they monitor telephone calls to screen potential threatening calls, they answer the door and screen visitors in the same way, they clean the bathrooms -- there are no janitors -- they do the cooking -- there is no cook on staff -- and, most important, they provide counselling or a listening ear. I've heard the duties described as a combination of sister, mother and friend. I don't really think there is an equivalent position in the GNWT public service. No one I can think of who works for the GNWT, except maybe a Cabinet Minister, has so many duties. Maybe Nellie comes close. Maybe the closest equivalent in the public service is a student residence supervisor, perhaps. I would like to note that I understand that a senior dormitory supervisor at an NWT residence makes pay level 21, which is a pay range of between $40,000 and $47,000, plus a host of benefits that, as Mr. Gargan has said, these workers don't have.
Madam Speaker, the shelter worker in my riding, where there is a very high cost of living -- where it costs over $3 to take a taxi anywhere in town -- make $10 an hour. The most experienced and best qualified staff make $12 an hour. I understand that the average take-home pay every two weeks is between $600 and $700 net. There are virtually no benefits.
What is keeping these shelter workers at their jobs? Nothing but sheer dedication. No increases have been possible for three or four years, other costs have only increased, so these workers are actually falling further and further behind as their situation is not addressed.
The other point I would like to make is, Madam Speaker -- and I know we're in times of financial restraint -- if these people and the societies and friendship centres that sponsor them were not delivering this vital service, the Government of the Northwest Territories could never step in and do this job the way it's being done now and at the cost that it is now costing.
One study that was done a few years ago, which took a look at Aggvik Society wages, benefits and operating costs, compared that with how a similar government-run facility like a corrections facility would be run using corrections models, pay scales and staffing levels, showed that the Aggvik Society operation runs at about one-tenth the cost of a comparable government-run institution. So the government is getting, really, very good value for the money that is being spent.
Madam Speaker, it is an important service. The Aggvik Society shelter served over 500 clients last year from all over the region. They are regularly running at 120 per cent capacity. I want to emphasize that there is strong support for this organization in the region and in Iqaluit. They are still maintaining a very modest food budget due to lots of donations of food, including country food, and items like furniture, toys and supplies. Three years ago, when there was a shortfall in the capital requirement to build an addition, the community and the region raised $54,000 with private donations in a very short period of time.
Again, Madam Speaker, I want to emphasize that I'm well aware of the restraints the government is operating under, but this vital service is being delivered in a very cost-effective manner. I suggest that unless relief is soon found that the breaking point will have been reached for these dedicated workers. They may well find that they simply can no longer afford, even despite their dedication, to continue at this kind of work, and they may be succumbing to any opportunity to take other better paying jobs.
I was very pleased that the government was able to assist alcohol and drug workers with their wages, and I don't think we should confuse this issue with the wage parity issue, Madam Speaker. I think from talking to staff in my constituency who work in this shelter, that they haven't set their sights so high as wage parity. What they would really hope is that a means can be found to allow them to at least begin to catch up with even cost of living increases. These increases will only continue in the coming years.
Fundamentally, Madam Speaker, as Mr. Gargan said, what this is also really about, as his motion indicates, is really how serious we are to honouring our commitment to no tolerance of family violence. Until we deal with this issue of the long-time lack of progress in improving the wages of these family violence prevention workers, then our society will suffer. Really what this is about is helping our people to be well enough to go to work so that when we have economic progress, when we create new jobs, when we develop new governments, when we implement land claims, the new opportunities will not be out of reach of many of our citizens due to social problems and dysfunctional families.
So, Madam Speaker, I hope this motion will lead to some redress of this long-standing disparity. I think we should give the new Minister of Social Services and Health some time to work on this issue. But I would hope that by the time the main estimates of the Department of Health and Social Services are presented in this House in the new year, we'll have some evidence that this long-standing problem is going to be addressed.
We've adopted a commitment to zero tolerance for family violence. Let's have the political will to identify this issue as a priority, to take a step to live up to the commitment of zero tolerance, with redress for these hard-pressed employees. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
---Applause