Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could I just ask the Member, I have not quite caught up to what page he is on.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one of the items listed is the whole area of emergency shelter services. One of the concerns that we have in a lot of our communities is that when you have a crisis situation where there is violence in the family and people are having to leave their homes, there is nowhere in a lot of our small communities where these people can go where they know it is safe by way of a shelter of some sort. Where there are children at risk, where do these children go when there is a problem with alcohol in the home and the mother and child want to go somewhere they feel secure?

There was a letter sent to the Minister previously from the community of Tsiigehtchic looking at building an emergency shelter for that community. What are you doing to ensure we have some sort of emergency shelter services being provided in the smaller communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, while our system is not perfect, there is an effort with existing shelters, the social workers in the communities, the nurses in the communities to be able to try to assist where there is an issue of family violence. In many cases, there are emergency foster homes that are there. At times, there also will be arrangements made, if it is extreme enough, that there will be families or women and children moved to the nearest shelter. That is in addition to the use of the RCMP to deal with the perpetrator. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It might sound great to the Minister, but what happens when there is no shelter in the community? You might have them at the regional centres, here in Yellowknife and other places, but what happens to the small communities that do not have emergency shelters or that type of service being provided? Where do these people go? What are you doing to ensure there is a place for these people to go so they do not have to leave their communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, efforts are made in those communities that do not have family violence shelters to identify safe homes where they can be used in the event of the type of emergency mentioned by my colleague.

As well, the social workers often will try to ensure there are emergency foster homes, or if it is a smaller community or a community where the social worker is well known, there may be family members that can be called in to assist.

We try to look at every available means where there are no family violence shelters. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Does he have a list of where these emergency shelters are and how many of those shelters are being funded by this government? If there are not any being funded in communities, can you give us a list of the ones that are not presently in place and being funded, and the ones that are being funded and are in place?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are five shelters being funded in Inuvik, Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Tuktoyaktuk. We also have, at the time of this briefing note, February 15th, 12 safe homes that had been identified. We do not keep a list of names. They are kept where they are of use at the regional level. It is a confidential kind of arrangement.

They are located at present in four communities, which I can share with the Member. I do not have the actual location of where the safe homes are, but they are in four communities other than where there are family violence shelters. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that is my point. We should be providing this service as essential services in all communities. We should not have to go outside of the community, but see that there is a building or a home in the communities that we can use.

You look at the children who are being taken away in foster homes and most of the children are native people from aboriginal communities. I think it sends a bad message that this government knows it is a problem. By having these facilities in the communities you do not have to take the children away from their community, their family, their grandparents, their brothers and sisters.

I think we somehow have to put a human touch on this thing so that we do not forget about those communities that need this essential service like anything else. I think because of the lack of service being provided by this government, it adds that much more of a problem, only you do not have a social worker, you may not have a mental health worker, you may not have policing. I think the frustration in the communities that do not have these services is that they do feel they are being treated at a lower class of service than most of the regional centres that you mentioned.

There are 30-odd communities out there. Out of that, 27 of those communities are small communities. You said there were four in small communities, yet there are still 23 other communities out there. Why is it they do not have this service and what are we doing to improve that in all communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to point out as well, it came up in discussions over the last number of days, that there is a considerable investment being made in dealing with the needs in communities. Specifically, I am referring to the three-year plan based on the Child Welfare League review to put in ten social workers last year, ten social workers this year and another 11 if it is approved next year, into communities across the Northwest Territories.

The sole intent is to address some of the child welfare issues and the family issues that have been identified through the Child Welfare League review where there has not been enough work done with families and children at the front end to try and address this issue before they reach the stage where shelters are needed and family violence resources are required.

There is a significant investment being made there. I agree with the Member that in an ideal world, if we had unlimited funds, then without a doubt there would be services being put into communities across the North, but with the funds we have available at the present, the situation is as I have described it.

If the investment has been made with the social workers at the front end, by next year there will be over 30 new positions over three years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I find it kind of odd coming from the Minister that now he is using funding as an excuse not to do anything. This government supposedly has a surplus and for us to continue to use that as an argument, the first place this government cut previously when they had a deficit situation was they did away with programs and services in communities. They did away with efforts that were made to try and improve that service and moved everything to the regions.

Now, when we are in a financial situation where it looks like we have a surplus and we are going around doing all these great initiatives, but when it comes to communities, we are being left out of the loop again.

I would like to ask the Minister, you can hire all the social workers in the world, but at the end of the day if these children are in a crisis situation or a mother has to get out of the home or leave the community, why should they have to do that if they are the ones who are the victims here?

We as a government can spend millions of dollars in institutionalizing people by spending $40 million on correctional facilities and young offenders facilities and youth facilities, but when it comes to people in our communities who need some place to go that is safe, this government has no money.

What are you doing? If you are not going to do anything, say you are not going to do anything, but I think it is an important enough issue that as a government, if we can afford to build $40 million jail facilities to house the people who cause a lot of these crimes against women and children, we should be in a position of putting money into protecting victims of these crimes.

Will you seriously look at this issue and put money and resources into ensuring that we have a system in place and people have the opportunity in all communities in the Northwest Territories to know there is a safe place in that community where they can go if they are victimized by violence?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to point out from my opening comments that in fact what we are seeing with these main estimates is a 9.4 percent increase over last year's budget. It is going to be likely that we will be coming forward as well as we proceed with the action plan for some supplementary appropriations.

We are also spending a significant amount of money on the new hospital in Inuvik, as well as ongoing upgrades to health stations and nursing stations. We are spending money. We are recognizing the need, but I do commit to the Member that the issue of trying to ensure that there is a safe place in every community for women and children to go is something that we will work with the communities with, and we will try to make sure that such a safe place is identified. As we move ahead with our funding requirements, this will be one of the issues that we are going to incorporate into our planning. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of quick questions in the same area as Mr. Krutko's questions regarding the family violence shelters and safe homes. I am glad to see that there is an increase in the funding on this budget line. My first question is regarding family violence shelters. Are these shelters, and the Minister has indicated there are five in the Northwest Territories, are these shelters all funded by the government?