Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there is a substantial budget in place for Child and Family Services, as we can all see. I almost view Child and Family Services or child apprehension 100 per cent preventable. I am wondering if the Minister could commit to doing some work on more than just what appears on the surface and reasons for apprehending children and looking deeper into the reasons behind the child apprehensions or even the reasons behind how the department and the families end up with a plan of -- I can't remember the term that the Minister just used, but the plan, then to try to avoid all of that cost by trying to link it, developing some sort of a pattern. I am willing to bet, although I don't know, but I am willing to bet that child apprehensions are uncommon with families with high incomes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I feel that Building Stronger Families is moving in the exact direction the Member is referencing. We have done the analysis, and in the Northwest Territories there are more children and families accessing services as a result of neglect, which may be related to struggles families are having around things like poverty or other issues like addictions. We know that residential schools and colonization have had a huge impact on residents of the Northwest Territories and some of them are struggling in this area.

Through structured decision-making, we are looking at supporting families and trying to get to a place where we don't have to apprehend children. I obviously put a caution on there. Where there are cases of abuse, it may be necessary for Child Safety to remove a child from a family. In the Northwest Territories, we do know that mostly it is neglect as opposed to abuse.

I think we have an opportunity to take those steps that the Member is talking about, working with the families, supporting the families, providing them with the tools that they need so that they can do what I think they want to do, which is raise their children in healthy, happy homes where everybody has an opportunity to stay and live together. We are third year of five moving forward with Building Stronger Families. Do I think it is perfect today? No. Do I think we are moving in the right direction? Yes. Do we still have a lot of work to do? Of course. I believe, through the tools that we are putting in place and the attitude we are trying to change, I think we will get to where the Member is describing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Any further questions, Mr. Beaulieu?

No, thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is fine for this section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next we have Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These questions are in relation to family violence. Over the last 10 years the proportion of re-admission to shelters has increased by 25 per cent, mostly in the past five years. In addition, the number of children found to be re-victimized has been trending upwards for the past two years. Despite this, there have been few, and now only negligible, increases in the support to family violence shelters, which are the first point of contact for many of these individuals. In addition to being a safe place, the shelters serve as transitional housing. Because of their access to those in need, they are uniquely positioned to provide a myriad of services that can help reverse this trend, this upward trend.

On page 172, there is a line item for $3.63 million. There is another line item labelled family violence on page 173, and there is an increase in the HSS Authority funding of $120,000 that I believe is earmarked for family violence shelters. The first question I have is: is the total of these amounts, about $4.145 million, the total amount allocated to family violence initiatives or is it just the $3.63 million found on page 172? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the amount on 172 of $3,630,000 is the money that is going towards all the initiatives focused around family violence in the Northwest Territories. The number on 173 of $395 is how much will flow to some of the different organizations across the Northwest Territories to support family violence. It is all in the $3,630,000. One is a grant. This section has gone up by $120,000, which is some additional contributions we are providing to three of the shelters based on some forced growth.

More importantly than the small increase, I made a commitment to the shelters last year that there has been a lot of talk about having a solid, set formula on how we fund shelters. It has been a little vague to date. I made a commitment that, once we had the single authority in place, that we would be able to work together to develop a formula in partnership with those family violence shelter organizations. I made a commitment that we would move on that basically a year after we had gone live with the shelter. I made a commitment that, starting in August, we will start to have those conversations with them on how to develop a formula to properly and adequately fund those shelters moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That answers questions three, four, and six. Last June you also said that $2.5 million flows to the shelters. That was in response to an oral question that I posed. The department's business plan indicates that there are two initiatives related to family violence, supporting family violence shelters with funding, training, and capacity, and the What Will It Take social marketing campaign. If the $2.5 million goes to shelters, is the other $1.1 million spent exclusively on this marketing campaign? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is a wide range of different marketing campaigns and other initiatives that we are using those additional dollars for. I will go to the deputy for the list and the detail. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Deputy Minister DeLancey.

Thank you, Deputy Minister DeLancey. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you for that answer. You said about $3 million to the family shelters through the authorities, plus another $395,000 directly. That is about $3.4 million, and in the response to my question it was $2.5 million. So has funding to family violence shelters increased by $900,000 in this budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm going to have to get some additional detail from the Member. Did we provide that number of $2.5 million? Because that's not what we have in front of us.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson?

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we will commit to getting a reconciliation of the numbers for the Member to explain where we are, but ultimately in this section we have increased by $120,000, which is the only significant change to this budget line from previous years; but we will look at the response to oral questions and reconcile the numbers. I apologize for any confusion.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.