Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Did the Minister have a comment there?

Thank you. I just want to thank the Member for the comment. Yes, this is an ongoing challenge that we need to work on, but I just want to add to our discussions here some of the things that people involved with the Family Violence Coalition, Lydia Bardak was on the radio this morning speaking about… We rely on NGOs to help us with this. I think the government has undertaken a number of initiatives to combat family violence at different levels, whether it be through the courts or enhancing shelter money, working with children who witness violence, there’s an initiative to work with men who abuse. We have staged programs to address this very serious issue.

I think we should just be cautious about statistics, because it is subject to interpretation and an argument can be made, and I’m not going to in any way dismiss the stats we have. I mean, stats give us good indicators, but there are various things you could attribute to why the numbers are rising and one of them being that sometimes keeping better track of what’s going on keeps the numbers up there too. I think Members are aware that we need multi partners and multi initiatives, which is what we are doing right now. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that. I know the good work that’s done around the Territory by service and program providers in the area of family violence. It’s much appreciated and our residents are glad that those services and programs are out there for them. I wouldn’t want to underestimate the work that’s happening there. I think it is good work.

The Minister talked about partnerships. Some of the dialogue that I have had here in the last couple of days has been with the Minister of Justice. I think a big part of this is targeting really the only person that can make a difference in domestic violence and that is the perpetrator, the abuser. We have to find a way to target and rehabilitate or reprogram that abuser. To me that is the biggest thing that we can do. If we have individuals out there that are committing 18 or 19 violent offences and getting light sentences and getting back out and reoffending, we are not rehabilitating, we are not reprogramming. They are just becoming institutionalized and going through the system time and time again. I would like to ask the Minister how the Department of Health and Services interacts with the Department of Justice on violent offenders, especially offenders in the area of domestic violence, and what input do you have in the programming that takes place at North Slave Correctional Centre or any...or is there an open dialogue between the two departments in trying to come up with the best, most suitable programming and services at our justice or corrections facilities to deal with that? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, on family violence issues as with the situation with some other like topics, we work very closely with departments like Justice. Family Violence Coalition is comprised of NGOs that are involved in this work as well as the Department of Justice and Health and Social Services and other people who are working in that field. Mr. Chairman, I can assure the Member that a lot of the same people are involved in sharing information and working on strategies and evaluating the programs and such. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Next on my list I have Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to start off where I left off during my last round of questioning.

In discussion with the Minister, the fourth point that we have with respect to the child and family services is that we feel that recommendation 39 should also be implemented or at least begin implementation of recommendation 39 during the 2011-12 fiscal year. Once again, we don’t feel that a recommendation indicates or asks the department to make updating the policy and standards manual a priority, but assign staff to lead and manage the project and to complete it within a reasonable time frame is going to cost a significant

amount of money. Value for dollar on the rewrite is significant. I would like the Minister to commit that she will move on this recommendation in 2011-12 and begin the process of updating the policy and standards manual under the Child and Family Services Act. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Minister Lee.

Mr. Chairman, I know the Member... This is one of the number of items that we discussed in the standing committee. I just want to make it clear that, as I stated yesterday, I am fully committed to looking at all of the suggestions that the committee made yesterday.

I just need the committee to understand that the response is government’s response and any changes or reconsiderations of budget will be a Cabinet direction. Our department is analyzing those recommendations right now. I will get back to the committee on how we go about with the options. I am not trying to evade; I understand what you are saying. I want to keep on working together with the committee on these. Mr. Chairman, I am fully engaged. It is just that it is the government response. The budget is a government budget as well. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, government response, government budget, Health and Social Services’ responsibility, so we look forward to your commitment to getting that information but we are talking about the budget now. We need to know what is happening before we move forward.

The last thing I want to ask on the Child and Family Services Act is actually a question that I stood up to ask during oral questions. I completely blanked on it. As soon as I sat down, I remembered what the question was so I will ask it now. The response indicates that you guys will be doing a strategic plan. I asked you during question period if that meant could you please commit to completing a strategic plan, with our input, obviously, committee’s input, before the end of the 16

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Assembly. I didn’t hear you say yes. Could the Minister now commit that that strategic plan will be completed before the end of the life of this government and that committee will have some involvement in that and, lastly, that you will keep us briefed on progress regularly? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, yes, the answer is yes. We will have the strategic plan done this fiscal year. We are hoping by August and we will work with the committee. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I am not going to ask any more questions on child and family services. You are probably happy to hear that.

This section of your department, community health programs, one of the areas that you provide grants

and contributions to are non-government organizations. A lot of what the department is affording in respect to counselling and addictions and stuff like that is done through NGOs in the voluntary sector. They are a very responsive group. They can do an awful lot. They can often go a little further with the money they provide them. We could, if we delivered programs and services in-house. I see them as being a critical aspect of business in the Northwest Territories. We need to make sure that we are providing them meaningful and ongoing support. Not every NGO is obviously in the category where multiyear funding is necessary, but certainly some are, some that are providing obviously some key counselling service, addiction services, treatment, housing, all the things that you heard us all talk about today.

I noticed over time some NGOs have slipped to one-year funding as this review of the NGO sector has gone on. I am wondering if you can tell me -- how many might be too specific -- but do we have many NGOs that are running on one-year funding from the Department of Health and Services? If so, what are we doing to ensure that we can provide some of these key NGOs multiyear funding so they can stabilize their service delivery and better meet the needs of the residents of the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Chairman, we do support multiyear funding for NGOs. Not all NGOs are able or equipped to do that. We consider the multiyear funding arrangement on an NGO-by-NGO basis. We are currently reviewing our funding arrangement with NGOs in the department. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, in past years I remember seeing a bit of a summary from the department. I think it might have been your department. It might have been a different department outlining the NGOs that we are supporting and which ones are multiyear and which ones are more one-time. Could you please get us a current update on the NGOs you are funding, how much you are funding them and which ones have multiyear funding, just for our information? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, we will do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Next on my list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I too was going to ask about multiyear funding agreements for NGOs. I just have a quick follow-up question to Mr. Abernethy’s. The government has recently put out a program manager’s guide to NGOs. The Minister mentions they are reviewing agreements that the department has with NGOs. Are they using that program manager’s guide to assist them in their reviews? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lee.

Mr. Chairman, yes.

Mr. Chairman, thanks for the answer. I wanted to go back just quickly to the Joe Greenland Centre staffing. The documentation that we received, I know it is from the NWT Housing Corporation and Health and Social Services. A little while ago we received a briefing note which indicated that two home support workers would probably be hired. The Minister mentioned up to two home support workers at one point and then a little later on in her remarks she stated hiring of one home support worker, so could I get a clarification as to how many staff are being hired for the renovated portion of Joe Greenland Centre? Thank you.

I need to reiterate that we are not hiring employees for the renovated Joe Greenland Centre. Home care workers, we are talking about home care workers that will be employed by the authority to work for the entire community.

In answer to the Member’s first question, the briefing note said two home care support workers. When I was in Aklavik meeting with the community, after that we have looked into that further and we are working toward having three home care support workers. So it is one more than what was suggested in the briefing note. Right now there is one home care worker in Aklavik and he spends, apparently, most of his time driving elders around. We need people to do more than that. We need to have home care workers that will support elders with their medication or medical, working on light housework, making sure their chronic disease conditions, or just be able to do more home visits, so we are going to expand the home care supply there by 300 percent with reprogramming. We are not going to be staffing. Joe Greenland Centre will be renovated and returned to what it was meant to be, which is an independent living unit. The NWT Housing Corporation has at least eight or nine elders who are on the waiting list who could benefit from moving into that unit. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister and thanks for the clarification on the staffing. I knew that and kind of didn’t state it that way, but I am glad to hear there will be three home support workers in the community of Aklavik. I think that’s a good thing.

I wanted to ask a question about the amount of funding in this budget for homelessness. Could the Minister initially tell me what programs that we run for homelessness? I believe there is a couple but if she could name them for me. Thank you.

I might have to ask my staff here to get me the details, but we run the Small Community Shelter Program, that is for $250,000

and then we have another program under a different name where we help our people to be relocated or go back to communities they came from sometimes. That is a separate funding for $200,000, but I need to revisit the name of that program. These are the two that I can think of right now, other than O and M funding support that we provide to lots of different NGOs.

Thanks to the Minister. Those are the two programs that I was aware of. I guess I would like to ask the Minister, she mentions O and M funding for various NGOs, but the Small Communities Homeless Fund and the other, I think it is Homelessness Assistance Fund or something, they don’t really apply to larger communities, so I would like to ask the Minister if there is any money in the 2011-2012 budget that can assist homelessness programs and needs within the larger communities, regional centres and the city of Yellowknife. Thank you.

We do provide, for example, we do have a day shelter program which is a form of... I mean, we are not obviously the users of that facility, don’t stay there, but we do serve the same clients that come out of Salvation Army or other homes in Yellowknife. We have funded the SideDoor Youth Centre with one of these two programs. We provide funding to Salvation Army, Centre for Northern Families and YWCA, so that is sort of the multi-spectrum of funding that we provide to different groups that deal with the homeless population or, you know, it is not entirely accurate to say that none of that money goes to programs in Yellowknife. Thank you.