Mr. Hawkins, we are currently on page 203 under community social programs. We do have a couple of activities left to do before we do a conclusion. Mr. Hawkins.

No, Mr. Chairman, I was just double checking that we haven’t reached the point of conclusion. Thank you.

No, Mr. Hawkins, we’re continuing on with activities. Do you have any questions on this activity page?

No, I’m good. Thank you.

Thank you. Committee, again, page 203, community social programs, operations expenditure summary, $28.199 million. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make a couple comments here. The first one is with the day shelters here in Yellowknife and Inuvik. I just want to talk about the importance of having these in place, especially during the winter months, and that funding. I know funding in Inuvik was

supposed to go to the Day Shelter. That money was resituated so that it could into an emergency shelter in the evenings. I know, speaking with some of the board members, they talked about the importance of doing a day shelter now, so we’re looking at both emergency shelters and day shelters.

With the day shelters I think the funding would be fully utilized in terms of getting counsellors, people that can go and speak to clients that would access the day shelters and not just have a place where you go and warm up. There’s got to be something that goes along with it. Counselling services, resume writing, you know, just basic life skills could be taught at these day shelters and I think that’s something that needs to be looked at when we’re funding some of these organizations to run it. It’s got to be put into a contract saying that the day shelters, when they have them open, they can also be providing services to the clientele.

The other one is just in terms of, you know, my pitch for death review committees again. We looked here under the family violence programs offer protection, assistance and shelter services, just more support in that area and looking at possibly the department working with the Department of Justice to look into the feasibility of having a death review committee and the importance of having that kind of committee in place when we’re dealing with family violence.

I know we’re going through the Child and Family Services Act as well as the action plan that’s coming out. I did some research into some work that’s also been done. The Saskatchewan Welfare Review of 2010 had some really good recommendations in it and it actually focussed on mental health, substance abuse and family violence in the home and how to provide services and having access to efficient counselling and programs for people that are in those three areas. They all intertwine and one kind of feeds off the other and they’re all related. I feel that we have the same situations up here in the North and, I think, looking at that model and those recommendations, we’ve got to look at how we can do that here in the Northwest Territories as well.

Those are just three areas of more just general comments, that I wanted to put out there, just give some ideas, get the department thinking about how we can utilize our day shelters effectively with programs and services for our clientele and not just giving them a place to warm up. I know some of them won’t take it on, but there’s some out there that might need to learn how to write a resume or, you know, might want to take in some counselling and have someone to talk to. So, when we’re funding these day shelters I think that’s got to be taken into account.

Like I said, it would be nice if the department can work with the Department of Justice about this family violence and possibly looking at death review committees and the feasibility of that. So, just comments, and as I said, I just wanted to get the Minister and his staff thinking about, you know, when we fund these organizations, what can we do more and support them more or ask them to do work that would benefit residents and also benefit us as we’re giving them dollars. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Member for the comments. I agree with the Member on the need for programs to at least be available to the day shelters, maybe not permanently located in there, but with the Day Shelter in Yellowknife there is space for staff from different departments to actually go in on a regular basis, or as requested, to meet with individuals in the Day Shelter. I agree; I think that’s important. I also know that the proponent is intending to deliver some of their own programs out of there as well. So it is good and I agree fully with the Member.

I will ask the department to work with the Department of Justice to explore the concept of the death review committee. I’m not as familiar with it as maybe the Member is, but I will ask the department to work with the Department of Justice.

I would like to say that when it comes to the Day Shelter in Yellowknife, by way of example, we’ve had a lot of really wonderful partnerships. The city has stepped up quite impressively. They recognize that this is a Yellowknife issue as well as a territorial issue and they’ve been an active partner since day one and we really appreciate them coming to the table. But I should also say that the Department of Justice has actually come to the table for ‘14-15 and has provided some financial support for the Day Shelter, as well, as well as ECE. So we do have a number of departments who have recognized the importance of this institution, this shelter, and have come to the table. So, thank you.

I’m kind of intrigued in how the Department of Justice and Department of ECE both contributed to the Day Shelter here in Yellowknife. I believe there’s only one other Day Shelter in the Northwest Territories and that’s in Inuvik, and whether or not the department would work with the other departments in looking at accessing those funds, as well, because the cost of doing business further up north is a lot higher. So, I’m intrigued and wouldn’t mind getting more information on that, and I’ll ask the Ministers when it does become time to review this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. More of a comment.

Thank you, Mr. Moses, but I know the Minister would like to reply. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Recognizing the increased cost of providing the Day Shelter here in Yellowknife, I did send letters to a number of different organizations, including government departments, and the Department of Justice and the Department of Education responded positively for ’14-15, one-time funding of $20,000 each to help cover the costs in the ’14-15 fiscal year. There’s no ongoing funding.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Continuing on, questions on community social programs, I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister how many children, if he can possibly be able to provide me with a breakdown of the Aboriginal children in foster care in the Northwest Territories. There might be different levels of care for the children, if he could somehow get that information to me.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department does have that data but we don’t have it at our fingertips, so I will commit to getting that information to the Member and committee.

I’ll look forward to that information. Thank you. That’s all for my questions.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Committee, again we’re on page 203, community social programs, operations expenditure summary, $28.199 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Committee, page 204, community social programs, grants, contributions and transfers, total contributions, $26.249 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Page 205, community social programs, active positions, information item. Any questions?

Thank you, committee. Page 207, diagnostic and therapeutic services, operations expenditure summary, $23.820 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I want to ask the Minister on this page in regards to the therapeutic services to the regions, and I’ll speak for the Sahtu in regards to the speech-language specialist pathologist coming in. Is that program being utilized in the Sahtu? I understand that when a speech-

language person comes into our region they’re well received by our people in that area. It seems like we need to have more of her or him come in to do some work with our students. Is there an evaluation as to being in our region that this is what they are finding, either to request more support or say we need a permanent type of specialist in our region?