Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and my thanks to the Minister. Are we looking at spending more money than we approved in the last Capital Estimates in order to upgrade this perimeter fence? Mahsi.

I would hope not, and that exactly was the problem, is that -- hope springs eternal -- the problem was, frankly, that the bids came in at far, far higher than we had expected. As I said last year, good fences make good neighbours, but we have to keep costs in mind. We're hoping with respect to the critical incident response by improving the security in that area that a more modest yet appropriate security system can be set up so that the inmates can again use this area of the facility.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a follow-up to my Member's statement. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, what support and resources can the Department of Health and Social Services offer to communities seeking to establish safe houses for women and children experiencing family violence? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services currently contributes about $2.55 million to family violence shelters across the Northwest Territories. In addition, we make an additional $200,000 available to help individuals who are in communities where there are no shelters with transport or to get themselves to communities where there are shelters.

In light of the Member's question, I have also taken the additional step of directing the Department of Health and Social Services to work closely with the Department of Infrastructure to explore some of the different federal infrastructure pots that have been identified and announced to see if any of those are dollars we might be able to use to support family violence shelters across the Northwest Territories moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister already answered my second question, so I'll ask the third. Mr. Speaker, if a woman needs to leave a violent partner and an unsafe home but there is no local safe house or shelter and no resident RCMP officer, what resources are available for her?

As I indicated, we do have money in our budget to actually support individuals to get to communities where there are some family violence shelters, but also recognizing that the last thing we want to do is having individuals who are fleeing family violence end up homeless. I have had a number of conversations with the Minister responsible for Homelessness about how we can incorporate this particular issue into our work on homelessness here in the Northwest Territories to see what we can do to support individuals who are fleeing family violence.

Mr. Speaker, there is currently a territorial Family Violence Shelter Network which is made up of the different family violence shelters in the Northwest Territories. I would strongly encourage the Member to talk to his community and have his community get in touch with that family Violence Network to see how they can work together to support those individuals who are fleeing family violence at a community level.

I have directed the department, and on September 18th staff from the department did meet with that network to begin the conversations of a formula funding arrangement to fund these shelters so that we can make sure to get the appropriate dollars to provide the valuable services that they do.

I think there's a good opportunity here for the community at a community level to work with that network to make sure that we're addressing the problem holistically rather than fragmented and individualized. I think there is great opportunity here, Mr. Speaker.

What kind of response can a family expect when calling for these services, especially on weekends?

As we've moved forward with the single system here in the Northwest Territories, we're focused on providing customer or client services that meet the needs of our residents. I would strongly encourage that the Member have individuals who are facing these challenges get in touch with social services who will hopefully be able to provide them with the guidance to help them get to family violence shelters around the Northwest Territories

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned that they are awaiting federal funding to see if there is anything that will fit these situations here. Can the Minister, in the near future, expect to have family violence shelters like a safe house in our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The first step is obviously for the Department of Health and Social Services to work with Infrastructure to review the different pots that have been made available by the federal government to see what, if anything, fits nicely that we can actually use towards this end.

Also, as I have already indicated, we are working with the NWT Housing Corporation and the Minister responsible for Homelessness to make sure that we have opportunities or places where individuals could go when fleeing family violence. We do not know what pots necessarily might be able to cover this, but as this work gets done, I will certainly share the results with the Member and committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today the honourable Member from Nahendeh talked about the fine work the Standing Committee on Social Development has done on the foundational review, and it makes me reconsider some of the Education Minister's comments from last week.

I wonder if he can answer this for me: what does he think the role of the standing committee is? From his statement, he seems to not address the fact that they are working on his timelines to provide the required advice. Further, he has gone on record saying that there was little agreement on what to do with the teacher education program and social work program. There was plenty of agreement on this side of the House: preserve the program and make it work. What is the role of the standing committee in this process, Mr. Speaker? Is it to blame it for delays, or is it to actually work with it to get results? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, there have been some delays in the correspondence back and forth, but we take all of committee's recommendations and suggestions seriously, and we do want to work with all Members in this Legislative Assembly. It is not us versus them. We should all be working together in the best interests of our residents, in the best interests of our students, and of the people that put us in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are trying to work with the Minister on this process. Everyone on this side of the House, when we get surprises like eliminating the Aurora College board, with delaying a mandate commitment that has been a mandate commitment from day one, there is a bit of consternation on this side of the House. The mandate makes a commitment, again from day one, to have a renewed strategic plan, some sort of plan for Aurora College. Will that work be done by the end of this term?

As I mentioned, we are going to get this foundational review. We set a timeline for March 31, 2018, and from that review, we are going to create a departmental response. We are going to share it with committee, we are going to share it with all Members of this Legislative Assembly, and as I mentioned, we are going to be working on a strategic plan going forward for the next 10, 20 years.

I think the students expect more than just a plan. They want these programs to be retained, and also our own Skills 4 Success document wants these programs to be retained and effective. We need change now, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask if this contractor the Minister has hired has any experience with transforming educational institutions towards vocational skills, like taking a community college and turning it into a polytechnic or an institution of higher learning. Does this contractor have any experience with that, or are we just looking at an accounting review?

As I mentioned earlier, as a government and as a department, we do support our students, whether they decided to get their education here in the Northwest Territories or outside the Northwest Territories. We want to make sure that all our students who are taking post-secondary education have that opportunity to succeed, and we are going to continue and commit to making sure that our students have that opportunity.

As we were discussing with our contractors, we are going to be working very closely with them. They will be working very closely with the college to ensure that, when the review is done, it is going to be something that is going to be in the best interests of not only the government, but our partners that we work with and residents of the Northwest Territories, to ensure that we have the best programs and best services in place to make sure that our students succeed. After all, it is about the students. It is about our residents.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is pretty clear it is question period, not answer period, because again, the Minister is not providing answers. My final question: I am going to ask if the Minister could take responsibility for these delays personally and back off the approach he took last week of blaming the standing committee for holding up the process. Will the Minister personally take responsibility for these delays and acknowledge that this work has been delayed since day one? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.