Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s no question that the NWT has one of the highest rates of family violence in Canada. This has long-term negative effects on the physical, social and economic health of the people of the Northwest Territories, so it’s clearly something that we all need to be working on, both on this side of the House and that side of the House.
On May 3, 2012, Premier Bob McLeod, as Minister of the Status of Women conference, confirmed his support, and Cabinet’s support, for the Coalition Against Family Violence’s prioritized recommendations to further address family
violence. These are a social media campaign, the piloting of the 24-week program for men who use violence, and community outreach that projects the increased safety for women and children in their care. That’s the commitment of Cabinet and the government to move forward on this, and you will see some of this stuff actually has appeared in our budget this time around. There’s some money in the budget for an additional family violence coordinator with the RCMP, so we are working on that.
Personally, I am committed to this. I will work with my colleagues, and quite frankly, we all need to work together to find real solutions to this. I’m committing the department to working in collaboration and partnership with my colleagues and we will work with the Regular Members and we’ll try to find some real solutions. Thank you.