As stated before, we have put forward a proposal to the standing committee; we are hoping that they will be reasonable and in recognizing that 911 is one of the initiatives that we are looking at if we can get the reductions that we need to be able to put money into new initiatives.

Masi. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to Commissioner's opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Northwest Territories Surface Rights Board 2016 Annual Report" and "Northwest Territories Surface Rights Board 2016-2017 Budget." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tabling of documents. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Tourism 2020: Opening our Spectacular Home to the World."

Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to table the report "Hush Hush No More: Sexual Assault in the NWT." Mahsi.

Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to table this document entitled "100 per cent Renewable Energy in the Northwest Territories by 2050" by Alternatives North dated October 2016. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Tabling of documents. I hereby table the “2015-2016 Annual Report of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.” Item 15, Notices of motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Masi. Notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Colleagues, before we get to the debate on the motion, the Chair calls for a short recess.

---SHORT RECESS

Colleagues, we left off on item number 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Motion 27-18(2): "A New Day" Men’s Healing Program. Member for Deh Cho. The Member for Deh Cho has the floor.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. "A New Day" Men's Healing Program: WHEREAS taking action on the crisis of family and community violence is a priority of the 18th Legislative Assembly and the mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories commits to continuing support for a healing program for men who use violence in intimate relationships;

AND WHEREAS colonization and the residential school experience are recognized factors contributing to intimate partner violence in northern Canada and the mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories commits to implementing the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, especially related to violence against Indigenous women and girls;

AND WHEREAS northern research indicates that male violence against women is committed across the Northwest Territories, including communities where victims have no access to local RCMP detachments, local victims' services workers, and or local women's shelters and that, even where these services exist, communities continue to have high rates of gendered violence;

AND WHEREAS "the Northwest Territories has the second highest rate of police-reported family violence, at roughly 7.8 times the national average, as well as the second highest rate of police-reported intimate partner violence, at roughly seven times the national average and 3,536.1 women victims for every 100,000 people";

AND WHEREAS the "A New Day" Men's Healing Program is the only program in the Northwest Territories which directly addresses the healing needs of men who have used violence in their relationships to change men's behaviour and prevent future violence;

AND WHEREAS uncertainty surrounding the "A New Day" Men's Healing Program has negatively impacted current program delivery, and future program disruption would negatively impact both current and potential participants as well as their partners and families;

AND WHEREAS violence against women will not end until those individuals who commit such acts are equipped to choose, and do choose, another path;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that the Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Department of Justice take immediate action to extend the service contract and funding for delivery of the "A New Day" Men's Healing Program by one year, to December 31, 2017, thereby granting sufficient time for the completion of a program evaluation as well as any subsequent required program transitions;

AND FURTHER, the Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Department of Justice inform the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning of its plan to implement the recommendations of this motion before the end of the 2016 calendar year;

AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi to the seconder of the motion, the MLA for Yellowknife Centre, Ms. Julie Green. I also thank my colleagues for support of this motion. I also acknowledge the presence of the staff at the New Day Program and the leaders of the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre who are in the public gallery.

A New Day Program has helped me. I made a wrong choice and sought help to understand myself and how abuse affects our families and our communities. The Dzene K'oonii Program offers an immediate circle of support that enables one to review the things in slow motion to reflect upon one's self, learn about resolve conflict and make healthy choices to maintain balance in one's family.

Today I'm doing well with my children and family and it's because of the A New Day Program. Mr. Speaker, the A New Day Program is recognized by the Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada's Aboriginal Best Practices Programs. It is part of a national network of addressing family violence and violence against women. Mr. Speaker, family violence in the Northwest Territories is at a crisis level. Reported domestic violence rates in the Northwest Territories are nine times the national average and second highest rate in Canada.

Sadly, the scenario is like this. Too often there is alcohol or drugs involved, there is an intimate relationship and an argument ensues about an issue that leads to an escalation of violence that leads to hurt and pain and sometimes tragically the death of a loved one.

This vicious cycle of family violence and violence against women must stop. The A New Day Program is an initiative that meets the goals of the mandate of the 18th Assembly by addressing family violence. Mr. Speaker, healing is recovering from a wound or trauma. Wellness means living a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Healing and wellness are critical needs for our families and our communities. While it is easy to associate the legacy of family violence to the abuse of alcohol and drugs, the impacts of residential schools and its effects are far reaching and intergenerational.

I remain hopeful that the recommendation for action of the Truth and Reconciliation Report will help address healing and wellness initiatives that we need for our families and communities. This motion, if passed, will recommend to Cabinet that the A New Day Program continue functioning without interruption while evaluation is completed.

Mr. Speaker, I'm living proof that the A New Day Program can help us come to terms with our past and move beyond the use of violence as a way of coping with the things we all struggle with. There is far too little support for our residents who accept that they need assistance. Let's not eliminate one of the few programs that is available and working. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Masi. To the motion. I'll allow a seconder to make her remarks. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to start by saying how very proud I am of my colleague Mr. Nadli. He has taken constructive steps to make himself a better man by starting on this healing journey, and we are all the better for it.

Mr. Speaker, women experience violence in greater numbers than men, but it's true that men also experience violence, and the effects of this violence include things like injuries, depression and other mental health issues, disease, addiction and even death. There are economic costs as well, mostly with loss in productivity but also the cost of treatment that amounts to billions of dollars a year.

Violence against women is a worldwide problem being addressed by the United Nations, national governments and territorial governments like ours. The recent report by the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada says, as you've heard, the NWT rate is nine times the national average, and believe it, Mr. Speaker, from December 2011 to December 2012 five women, five women, in the NWT were killed by intimate partners, and I'm going to name them because they should never be forgotten: Jenny Pingo of Tuktoyuktuk, Mary Laboucan of Fort Resolution, Carol Buggins and Linda Lafferty of Hay River and Yvonne Desjarlais of Yellowknife and most recently May Elanik of Aklavik.

Mr. Speaker, this is a problem everywhere in the Northwest Territories, and this is what's important to know in the context of this motion. Violence against women is not inevitable and it is preventable, and the key word here is prevention. Prevention involves reducing the number of new incidents of family violence with actions that address systemic issues. Why do men use violence against women and how do we stop them?

The Coalition Against Family Violence and the Department of Justice spent more than two years looking at programs that would help men to stop using violence. What they came up with is not an off-the-shelf program, but one which is culturally appropriate and community-based, and as my colleague Mr. Nadli said, the Public Health Agency of Canada has designated it an Aboriginal Best Practices Program. It is on the face of it the right program for this territory.

The department decided to pilot the program. It got off to a rough start because the non-profit contracted for delivery collapsed. The program really didn't start until two years ago and it was supposed to be a three-year pilot, but it's been incredibly successful in the time it has been going with more than 350 people who have attended some aspect or all of the program since it started and the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming in saying that it's effective.

Mr. Speaker, this program starts with asking men to take responsibility for their violent actions. They then go on to engage in individual and group therapy, they explore the circumstances and feelings that trigger a violent reaction such as their residential school experience and the feelings of anger and powerlessness that go with that memory. They begin a healing journey that addresses their unresolved trauma.

Some steps along the way include, as I said, defining abuse and taking responsibility for it, creating a relapse prevention plan, talking about the physical and psychological effects of abuse for women, and they also talk about how they can be part of the healing process for the women they've abused if the partners agree to participate. Many, many men have started their healing journey with the help of this program and more are ready to start. A New Day is set up and it's ready to continue and continuity is very important in this context.

I have no quarrel with evaluating the pilot. That is the right thing to do, but the prospect of shutting the program down before coming up with a replacement is completely unacceptable. Women have the right to be safe from violence, and that means intervention like family violence shelters, but it also means systemic addresses such as the A New Day program. This program needs to be extended for a year while the evaluation is not only finished but shared and plans are made for next steps. Mahsi. Mr. Speaker.

Masi. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of this motion on A New Day Men's Healing Program. The motion speaks clearly to the need for this program, Mr. Speaker. Taking steps to combat family and community violence are among the priorities identified by the 18th Assembly's mandate. Similarly, our mandate commits to implementing the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission especially related to violence against Indigenous women and girls.

These are among the most difficult and pervasive problems facing our communities. The impacts of violence are felt throughout the family and community and don’t just go away. Indeed these impacts can be multi-generational if they're not addressed. Most clients of A New Day are self-referred; they go to the program because they choose to. Many of them are residential school survivors. Colonization and residential schools are recognized contributing factors to intimate partner violence.

Family violence is well known to be cyclical, and only through active, directed intervention will the cycle be broken. So it is important that we take immediate steps to preserve this program. We must make sure that the service continues to be available to NWT men and their loved ones, and we must demonstrate clearly that this Assembly is dedicated and determined to confronting this issue.

In my view, the continuation of this program should not even be in question. When men choose to find help, confront issues within themselves and seek a path away from violence, there must be support available to them for that journey. Helping make sure that support exists may be among the most important steps we take as an Assembly. I offer this motion my strongest endorsement. Those are my comments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the motion. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I support this motion. The government is mandated to provide a men's healing program, and morally there is no question that we should be. Whether the funding for A New Day continues beyond next month is dependent as the Minister says, upon the findings of a third party evaluation.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that we are in difficult financial times, and I'm not against cutting costs, nor am I against ensuring that the programs we fund are effective, but I am worried that the government may just see this as a cost saving opportunity. I might not even advocate for the extension of the program if the department had something similar ready to go. But as it stands, if this program is cut, the territory will be without a men's healing program, with no guarantee they will get another one and no apparent plan from the department to implement something similar.

If the department is looking at this from a purely economic standpoint, it should consider the immense cost savings of preventing family violence. Keeping one person locked up in jail in the NWT costs over $100,000 a year, nearly half a year of funding of the A New Day program. What are the costs associated with multiple visits from the RCMP, or ambulance trips, emergency visits, nights in emergency shelters, removing children from their home, legal aid, time in court? If the program can help one individual to stop perpetrating family violence, cost savings in all these areas will be realized; and if the program stops the propagation of intergenerational trauma in one family, the cost savings are exponential.

The department also points out the number of graduates of the program, with the implication that the number may be too low to justify the cost. I know that some sort of metrics need to be used to assess programs, but I don't know if counselling for intergenerational trauma lends itself well to the idea of graduation. Over 300 men have accessed the counselling service, and just because they haven't all graduated from the program doesn't mean that there is no value in receiving counselling. What it does mean is that hundreds of men have reached out thousands of times. There is a clear and pressing need for these programs.

There is much more to be said about this motion, but I'll yield the floor and conclude by reminding all Members of this House that this motion simply asks to extend A New Day by one year. It's not a big ask. In fact, it offers a solution to the department's failure to prepare for this eventuality by not completing the review sooner or evaluating the program on an ongoing basis. I encourage all Members who believe that we need to address the issue of family violence to stand up in support of this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. To the motion. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I stand in support of this motion. Mr. Speaker, the A New Day has a saying: we built it, they came and keep coming. Mr. Speaker, as of September, 299 men and 59 women were served through the program as of September 2016, and the number has risen as we are now in November.

Mr. Speaker, you see the intake we've had, yet we only have 2.5 people working there; two full-time positions and one part-time. Mr. Speaker, there are four stages of the program. The first stage is defining abuse and taking responsibility; number two is developing a relapse prevention plan; third, studying the effects of abuse; fourth, skills to repair and heal the effects of abuse.

Mr. Speaker, this is approximately 18 weeks to complete, depending on client participation. One thing the people at A New Day have noticed is that sometimes people can't complete the whole sessions, because they have to travel back to their home communities. But what they do notice is, when people do come back to the capital, they continue with the programs that they were taking.

Mr. Speaker, you know, we had a presentation this spring from A New Day and just with all the progress that they've made, at that time it was roughly a year and a half, it's pretty clear that the program is successful. Even if we could help a handful of people stay out of our correctional facilities, the cost savings there, that's one thing that the department needs to look at. How much have the numbers dropped in our facilities in the Northwest Territories in the last two years?

I'm hopeful that, you know, it's a small amount to look at the big picture of all the people that we're helping here. It's roughly $250,000 to keep the program operating, Mr. Speaker, and there are 350 people that this program is helping. That says a lot, Mr. Speaker, and for that I am in support of this motion. Mahsi.