Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In his strategy, is the Minister considering looking at a communication strategy also? Mr. Speaker, there is an elder in Fort Good Hope that somehow we missed this elder here in terms of communicating between the elder and the Housing Corporation. This elder had his house frozen up for over a month here and nothing happened in terms of Housing looking after him. He was in the bush. The technical advisor was on holidays. Just nothing happened to help this elder here. Now it is finally being looked at and still not a done deal. Is the Minister looking at the communication strategy to work with elders such as this kind of incident?

Mr. Speaker, if it was a home ownership issue, then it would be the homeowner’s responsibility to ensure somebody is watching over his house. Having said that, though, we still continue to try and work with folks that find themselves in situations like this, to see if there are ways that we can assist them. At the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility I would think would have to be on the homeowner to ensure their place or units don’t freeze up. In the cases where it does happen, we do what we can to work with these folks to try and repair some of the problems. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was very proud to speak to the issue of V-Day North here and the campaign to work to stop violence against women. My questions will be to the Minister who would be responsible for the Status of Women. Mr. Speaker, one of the statistics I highlighted which was the rates of spousal abuse in the Northwest Territories are 5 percent higher than the national average. What strategies does the government have in place that will combat this problem and what has shown results on dealing with this terrible statistic? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, this government has been involved with the Family Violence Action Strategy and we work with the coalition to address this issue. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be able to highlight some of the resources they have committed directly to the V-Day North

campaign or any other campaign that has gotten out there to stop the violence against women? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, specific to that event, the organizers had asked me if I could attend and say a few words. I was happy to accept that invitation and participate in the event. Mr. Speaker, under the NWT Family Violence Action Plan, which is now in phase II, we fund shelter stabilization enhancement funds. We fund funding for non-shelter regions. We also work with Justice and we have contracted YWCA to deliver a program on children who witness violence. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, what programs does the ministry support for men, specifically to help curb this terrible trend where we have a 5 percent increase above the national average which is directed at violence against women? What programs does the department have specifically targeted at men to bring down this terrible, horrible statistic? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, the Department of Health and Social Services and the Status of Women are part of the coalition that works on family violence issues. One of our initiatives that Strategic Investments committee Building Our Future has approved is a program for men who use violence. That program is being delivered by the Department of Justice. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister able to point towards any specific statistic that shows and demonstrates that our terrible average of being on the national worst list of abuse against women is coming down? Is she able to point specifically at any numbers or statistics that definitely define us as working towards that goal of ending violence against women? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I believe through the work that the government has been involved in, we are better able to keep track of stats, and the stats do not show a downward movement. We still stay at the high end of the increasing numbers of family violence and domestic violence and other violence in the Territories per capita. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some more questions following up on my Member’s statement today. The other mission in the contracts report over $5,000 is the contract between the Government of the Northwest Territories and

Ruskin to build the Deh Cho Bridge, Mr. Speaker. It is not every day that the government signs a sole-source contract for over $92 million. I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation where that contract is and how come it is not in the registry. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contract for Ruskin was signed with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation in March of 2010 with the approval of the GNWT, of course, so it would not appear in the GNWT contracts report for the 2009-2010 year. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, didn’t the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation hand over control of the project prior to March of 2010? If so, why is the contract with Ruskin between the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and Ruskin and not the Government of the Northwest Territories and Ruskin? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT assumed the contract through and as part of the letter of agreement that was signed between the GNWT and Deh Cho Bridge Corporation in 2010-11 fiscal year, so it will now start to show up in our books once we do the appropriate changes. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to have to certainly take a longer look at the timeline and how this all happened, but that is pretty alarming if the contract is between Ruskin and the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and not the government. We supposedly took over that. Mr. Speaker, have the assets of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation been transferred over to the Government of the Northwest Territories and when did that happen? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the assets, the contracts, all the dealings with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation were transferred to the Government of the Northwest Territories and they will now start to be part of our public accounts, that is including the long-term debt. It will also be included in our non-consolidated financial statements. There is going to be some requirements for some legislative changes to the act that will require us to now not put the revenues into a special fund, but will now go into general revenues of the government. So there are minor changes to that. That will be forthcoming as we move along here, but now, for the comfort of the Member, all assets, all components of the bridge project are now under the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the timing is pretty good. The Minister and his staff are going to be providing a briefing to Regular Members next week on the Deh Cho Bridge Project. I was wondering if the Minister could commit to have his department staff, when they come to the briefing next week, provide the committee with an overview of the contract itself, especially with an eye to eligible costs and where responsibility lies for eligible cost overruns on that project. Thank you.