There are a variety of supports across the Government of the Northwest Territories that are available to all residents of the Northwest Territories in times of need. We have income support. We have housing that provides a number of different supports to residents of the Northwest Territories. I don't think we have enough time to list all of the things that they do, but I will say that part of the process of building stronger families is helping families connect with those resources that exist and helping identify the resources that will be appropriate for the times. Once again, I do want to say, we are halfway through implementation of Building Stronger Families. The first couple of years have really been focused on fixing the foundation, fixing the core, and we are starting to do some of these tests like we did with the Housing Corporation to explore these new ideas and new ways of doing business.

I will say, and I think it's good news, we have seen an increase in the number of Child and Family Services files over the last number of years, but what we have also seen is a larger increase of voluntary interactions with us rather than apprehension based activities, and more children staying with their families through voluntary service agreements and trying to find these creative ways to access programs. We still have children who are being apprehended. We want to see that number go down. We have seen that number going down in the last couple of years. We’ve seen the number of mediations rather than court activities start to take off. It didn't exist a couple of years ago. We have families that are providing supports through a foster program. We found a way to expedite the process for families so that they can get some resources. Things are going in the right direction. We have a long way to go. In my mind, one of the largest challenges we have is the fact that we have a lot of staff out there. We have been doing certain things in a certain way for a long time. It is hard to change attitudes, beliefs, and we are working to make those improvements, and I ask you to work with us as we continue to make these changes to keep families together rather than tearing them apart. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.