Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start off by thanking the mover and the seconder for the motion that we’re debating today. I also want to highlight the efforts of our Premier of the Northwest Territories, the Honourable Bob McLeod, in his leadership role that he’s taken on in helping the national Aboriginal organizations facilitate the development of a national roundtable.

We know that the RCMP complete extensive and exhaustive investigational efforts at the start of each missing and murdered person’s case and that investigation effort continues on. We also know from released statistics that Aboriginal women are overrepresented amongst Canada’s murdered and missing women. We support a coordinated approach across Canada as violence against Aboriginal women and girls is a concern in every jurisdiction across this country.

I believe that a national roundtable on this serious issue will allow all the good work that has been done to date be presented and understood in a coordinated fashion. It will allow us to build on that work and have the ability to share best practices to better coordinate to stop violence from occurring.

Our departments cannot work in isolation on this issue. That is why during the recent FPT Ministers responsible for Justice meeting this was on our agenda. In the Premiers’ meetings, Status of Women’s meeting and Health and Social Services’ meetings, we have each spoken to ways that we can contribute to the prevention of violence.

We are moving in the right direction. By bringing these types of topics to the forefront, conversations are happening around kitchen tables, around the territory, at leadership meetings with organizations throughout the North, and that is happening in all three northern territories. This roundtable will be one step closer to giving us the support to move

these important conversations forward, increase awareness of the issues and assist us as we work together with community members from, again, stopping violence from happening in the first place.

Mr. Speaker, I will be, as the Premier mentioned, supporting this motion today. Thank you.