Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions with regard to the numbers on this page. Under community services, the family violence funding has increased about $400,000. Could I get an explanation of where that funding will be used? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m going to have the deputy minister provide a response to that.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Ms. DeLancey.

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks for that explanation. That’s what I thought, so that’s confirmed.

The next item down is community wellness programs. It mentions Bailey House in Yellowknife. I have heard, I believe, that we are developing a community wellness strategy and we are putting wellness committees, I think it is, in communities in the NWT. I’d like to know from the Minister, can I get a bit of an explanation in what we are doing in each community. Is it a wellness strategy in each community? Are we putting a wellness coordinator in there? What is that program that we’re doing regarding wellness? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have a coordinator, one coordinator, and she’s going to be working with each of the communities to put a community wellness plan together. The wellness plan is going to look to the state of the

communities at this time and then develop a plan to increase the wellness community by community.

I presume this is going to take awhile; we have 33 communities. One coordinator is not going to set up a plan within this fiscal year, I presume. So what communities are targeted for the 2012-13 year?

We plan on expanding some of the work in wellness. One of the things we are hoping to do is work with community organizations or Aboriginal governments within the communities to help us develop these plans, so it would not be just one individual that is developing all of the plans, but we’ll try to work with the Aboriginal groups, Tlicho Government, as an example, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and so on. We’re going to be engaging the groups when we develop the wellness plans across the territory.

I didn’t hear where we’re targeting in this fiscal year, but I’d like to know if the Minister can advise me when the City of Yellowknife will be contacted to develop a wellness plan or a wellness strategy for my community. Thank you.

We are starting with the organizations that I just spoke of, the Tlicho, the Inuvialuit and YK Dene. We’ve also met with the NWT Association of Communities at the last meeting in Norman Wells and advised all the communities that we were doing this. What we’re hoping is the communities will work with our coordinator, well known to all in the Association of Communities as she worked for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs for many years and had a major role within that association. I’m hoping that we get some uptake from the communities, but for now we’re starting with those three organizations.

I’d like to know from the Minister if it is the intention to have a wellness plan in each of our 33 communities, will there be the development plan for Yellowknife. Thank you.

We are hoping to proceed with every community that wishes to have a wellness plan. We will work with every community that wishes to have a wellness plan.

Having said that, we have to realize that developing a wellness plan in a city the size of Yellowknife would be a difficult task. It may be portions of the city. We need to do a lot of work, a lot of planning in order to come up with a wellness plan for the city of Yellowknife. Of course, in the smaller communities it would be a lot easier. Most organizations in small communities encompass the entire community, whereas in Yellowknife various organizations would only take portions of the community and deal with only portions. So it could be a task, a major task in communities even like Hay River, Inuvik and Fort

Smith as well. We recognize that, but we made the offer that we are prepared to try to develop wellness plans in all 33 communities.

Thanks to the Minister for the information. I guess I would suggest that, yes, Yellowknife is a larger community, but city council already has a Social Issues Committee. Yellowknife City Council already has a social plan that they rolled out a couple of years ago and I think the Minister only needs to look at the example of the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition which has gathered together all organizations and all people who are interested in dealing with homelessness in our city. So I would urge the city not to look at this as a difficult task, but to look at it as a slightly larger task than for a community of 100 people, but Yellowknife needs to have a wellness strategy as much as any other community. Fifty percent of the population live in this community, so when you get the request from Yellowknife, as I’m sure you will, please don’t look at it as putting it to the bottom of the pile because it’s going to be a tough thing to do. Thank you.

I commit not to put Yellowknife at the bottom of the pile. I would have the department take the wellness plans in the order that interest is shown.

Mr. Chair, that is good.

Moving on, I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow up with the one right below that, the home care. I was happy to see half a million dollars more resources towards that. I wondered if that was directed anywhere in particular or to any particular aspects of the program. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I didn’t hear the Member, but I think the deputy has and I will ask if she can provide a response. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ms. DeLancey.