Madam Speaker, we know that the day when a government based in a central location like Yellowknife can afford to try to come up with solutions for communities with regard to the problems that they face is over. It's this government's commitment, as difficult as it is, to take a community development approach in addressing solutions to the kinds of social ills that plague all of our communities.

I'm not certain that we will ever develop a mechanism that will evaluate the effectiveness of the current programs. At best, we can say that we expend a certain amount of money for a broad range of programs and services that are directed at curbing violence at the community level, dealing with the problems that result in violence. The question of whether we have an evaluation mechanism to decide whether or not the current programs and money that we throw at the problems of violence are effective can probably be best answered by saying that we don't, except to say as a general rule. We are of the view that we simply have to hold the line until we can develop a strategy in concert with the women's groups, with the other advocate groups and the communities in developing a strategy which will be developed by April. That would say here is the best way to realign current resources and change policies and directives so that communities have the flexibility they need in order to decide themselves where the priorities are and what type of resources should be allocated according to their local needs. That's what the strategy is.

Other than that, the Member should be aware, for instance, that we spend about $27 million a year to police ourselves, largely to protect ourselves from violent offenders, from violence created as a result of alcohol, from family violence, from assaults and sexual abuse. A lot of this money can be redirected if we can find a strategy that would help us curb and address the reasons for the violence in the first place. We can also redirect a lot of the money we spend currently, paying social workers, mental health workers, alcohol and drug workers, family violence coordinators and many of the other people who commit much of their time dealing with violence, but only dealing with it after it manifests itself. So that's the reason for the strategy. I think that the measuring stick will be in seeing how communities give advice on how to reallocate and place those resources more appropriately. Thank you.