Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to add my view or just add my thoughts on this topic to sort of enrich the conversation, perhaps. I don't know. Let me just put my two cents into this. In looking at this, at first I looked at this and thought, I guess, it is an item that may raise an eyebrow or two. But if you really look at it, maybe it's the name, maybe they should change the word "conference" to something else because if you look at it as an assembly in the North, it's very important. We put high value in bringing community people together into one place, wherever that might be, to exchange information and to get their input into what's going on on the ground.
I want to tell you, in February, when the Status of Women Council organized a Joining the Circle women's conference, that was a huge undertaking and I believe I made a statement in the House stating that the keynote speaker who came from Toronto, she told me, she said she could not believe how permeating the issue of family violence was. We could not move on with our agenda because no matter what the topic was -- it could have been about community capacity building or it could have been about leadership, how to run for office, it could have been about how to put a proposal together -- just the topic of family violence came up everywhere. The most popular session they had was the healing session. The women that were there felt empowered to learn that other women leaders were going through the same thing and they were also empowered to learn what was being taught at the conference and knowing that they could take that to their communities and do something with that. In fact, out of that conference, the Status of Women Council is organizing a two-day workshop at the end of the month to debrief all that went on and they're going to put up strategies together for the government to act on.
So I'm thinking, I think it's important for us to think of this as a, you know, the community government conferences. There have been a series of conferences, very well organized by NWT Association of Communities, to learn about the new formula and the New Deal for the communities, the whole water and subsidy programs that's quite complex. It's a professional development course, as well as learning, as well as sharing information, as well as crying together. I mean we, all the women had to talk about what they were going through with respect to family violence issues and how the family violence issues are affecting every aspect of our lives in our communities. So I think I could see that if the headline tomorrow is "Government is Approving $195,000 for Conference" that may not look so good. But I think that we know enough in this gathering to know that it costs money to bring people together. I believe it costs 40 to 70 thousand dollars a day to have us meet here. It is important for the people who are caregivers or who are working with people who are suffering from family violence, people who are trying to do something about what to do about our family violence issues, that they gather together. We know that to bring 120 people together, it costs money, and it costs money to travel, it costs money to accommodate them, it costs money to bring people together. It's not just for them to get together to just get together, it is an action place, it is a thinking place, and I'm sure there will be lots of good recommendations coming out of that.
So I just wanted to add that to the context and to also add to a comment made about the fact that we need to address the issue of family violence against men. I do understand that there are men who are victims of family violence and other forms of violence, and the government has a role to play in addressing their needs. But I don't think we should ever lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of victims of family violence are women and overwhelming perpetuators of family violence are men. It's not all men, but that's just the way the stats lie. So I just don't think, in putting forward the good suggestion that government should look after the men who are victims of violence too, we should in any way underestimate or undermine the overwhelming stats that show it is the women who are locked up in a house and raped repeatedly for days and left to...We've had that happen in our communities in the last two days. The most violent crimes committed, in family violence or sexual assaults, are done by men against women. So I just want to make sure that we put this comment in proper context. Thank you.