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.