Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this weekend I had the opportunity to go home and on Saturday afternoon, I had a couple of meetings with constituents.
Mr. Speaker, I met on Saturday afternoon with the executive director of the Inuvik Transition House. I have raised this issue in the past in the previous Assembly and raised it with this Minister during, I believe, the Department of Health and Social Services' budget review. Mr. Speaker, the transition house provides a much-needed service in the community of Inuvik and for the region. It provides shelter for women and children who end up in the unfortunate situation of having to leave their homes from either the community of Inuvik or other communities surrounding Inuvik.
Mr. Speaker, they have struggled for many years. As long as I have been a Member of this Legislative Assembly and the 13th Legislative Assembly, I have always worked with them to try and ensure they had enough funds to make it through the year. They have had a lot of volunteer support from the community to help them make the year end.
Mr. Speaker, the concern continues to grow that they will either not make the year end or they will run into problems very early into the fiscal year, as the dollars do not flow immediately after April 1st. Mr. Speaker, when we look at the Transition House in Inuvik and compare it with other shelters in the Northwest Territories, the Inuvik Transition House is under-funded compared with other facilities when you compare them bed for bed.
Mr. Speaker, I have tried to raise this issue before the health boards were transferred the funding from the department but to no avail. I think at this time, hopefully with this Minister, we can work towards achieving some balance here with other shelters in the Northwest Territories. Without this much-needed facility, Mr. Speaker, we will be paying much more as a government when you count transportation and other factors in there.
At the appropriate time, I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you.
-- Applause