Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to thank the Member for Mackenzie Delta for his Member's statement today and for raising some of the concerns that are faced by communities in the area of family violence. This is a very important area and hearing the statements from the other side of the House today gives me some hope that as a government, collectively we can look very seriously at how we can start to resolve some of these problems.

Mr. Speaker, we do expend quite a substantial amount of resources in the North to address social problems under areas such as addictions and mental health, the children and youth programs, health promotion initiatives. There are activities which are gong on in the communities. Mr. Krutko raises the issue of women and children having to leave communities because of the lack of resources that are available and going to larger centres.

I guess just from a demographics logistics point of view, it does make sense that there are some resources located in larger communities, partly because of the population that they have to serve and also partly because of the volunteer component in some of the larger communities. However, we do try to be fair in terms of distribution of resources. When I look at the funding that goes into family violence, I do see quite a number of small communities that are represented there as well.

Certainly, the problem is large and we have a long way to go in addressing it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the other area that I feel is critical that this department looks at is ensuring that there are significant resources in our communities to carry out the programs to ensure families and communities have access to these programs. So I would like to ask the Minister, what is she doing to ensure there are significant resources in our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have an opportunity as the Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services to work with the Standing Committee on Social Programs and to take the input of Members of this House and represent those when we are doing our business planning. I know that this is not the business planning Session, but I hope that Members will be supportive when this government does go forward with initiatives to add critical investments into these areas where they are much needed.

It is true that many of the people who are working in the area of mental health, social workers and child protection in the communities have a very heavy workload and sometimes do not get to do some of the coordinating and some of the early intervention that could take place for families and children who are at risk of violence and other types of social danger. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week the Minister stated in this House that there was a program that they just established with the Status of Women and that there was $500,000 allocated from this government and from the Stanton Health Board. So I would like to ask the Minister in regard to having come up with these resources for this program, what is the possibility of other regional groups or other regional health boards being able to access similar funds so they can also carry out such a program?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the project that Mr. Krutko refers to which is Women and Children's Healing and Recovery Program and this was launched in Yellowknife, the announcement of it was this week and, in fact, the program is underway now. The Member is correct. That $500,000 is being put towards this, $250,000 from the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board and $250,000 from the department.

The money that is being spent on this from the Department of Health and Social Services is money that was previously committed and used for the funding of the Northern Addictions Services and when that program was no longer in existence, we began to look at other alternatives in which we could invest those monies. So this is a pilot project and certainly, if it goes well, it is a model that we like to see expanded to the regions and utilize there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it is appropriate that this government, in regard to my comment of their principle where they talk about fairness of our programs and services to all residents, that we do not just deliver programs on the basis of picking apples off a tree. You have one group that comes in with a good proposal and you do something for them but you forget about the others. The problems are not just unique to Yellowknife. The problems occur in all the communities. So I would like to ask, Mr. Speaker, when will we see an increase in programs and service dollars to all communities in the North so we can deal with this problem?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the initiative that was announced this week also involves the very extensive participation of some non-government organizations, including the Status of Women, the YWCA and the Yellowknife Women's Centre. This effort was not singularly a government effort. We worked in partnership with these groups and it is a fact that almost half of the people in the Northwest Territories do live in Yellowknife. This is a magnet community. Many people do come here and certainly these resources that are allocated are not exclusively for the use of Yellowknifers. Women can be referred from communities in the Northwest Territories, but we need to test this model out, so this is why this is a pilot project. Like I said, it would not be going ahead without the extensive involvement of some of the other organizations committed to family violence and healing and recovery in Yellowknife.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a question to the Minister responsible for Transportation. It has to do with his return to oral question. When I brought up my issue about safety on the highways, I thought I was addressing it quite plainly as emergencies having to do with accidents, and who is responding for basically ambulance service and that sort of area. Apparently, there was some confusion there.

It is Friday, and we seem to be having a problem with establishing what Minister is responsible for what here. I do not think this one is any less complicated, Mr. Speaker. I am trying to find out who I can ask questions to and address the situation that I feel is very important to the travelling public. I have a number of questions and they will not all be addressed today, but who is the lead department on organizing or setting up emergency services to respond to accidents on the highway? I will specifically state ambulance service.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that I will just take the question as notice and respond to the Member on Monday. Thank you.

Thank you. Based on the comments of the Minister responsible for Health, the Honourable Jane Groenewegen, I will ask her this question. It is regarding her Minister's statement this morning on family violence. In it, she states that during 1999 there were 436 reported incidents of spousal assault by a male perpetrator. I am not sure if that is what she said. We will have to check Hansard. If that is the case, then I have many questions for the Department of Justice, and I will need to get the Minister to clarify that, if it is a true statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to the best of my knowledge and as far as the statistics that I have been provided with, that is correct.