Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are closing in on nine months since the final report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was released. In that report, Mr. Speaker, are calls for justice that are crying out to be fully implemented and for real action to be taken by all levels of government in order to have the calls for justice realized.
The final report speaks to many issues that we have already been discussing in our 19th Assembly:
- Indigenous rights in section 1; our priorities list settling land claims and implementing UNDRIP.
- Indigenous culture and language, in section 2; we are losing our language and our own people are being forced to answer the phones in our government departments in French.
- Health and wellness, in section 3; equitable access for all in our communities.
- Human security, in section 4; we have a lack of shelters and transitional housing in our communities, with the North having the highest rate of violence against women.
- I'll jump over to section 11, which talks about education and educators to be teaching Indigenous history, law, and practices from Indigenous perspectives, and the use of Their Voices Will Guide Us with children and youth.
- Section 12 speaks to child and family services, which at this time has 100 percent Indigenous kids in the care of the NWT.
- Correctional service; in this section, 100 percent of the women incarcerated in the NWT are Indigenous and, from the recent CBC, we know that over 80 percent of the males incarcerated are Indigenous. How can we integrate them back into the community with supports?
Mr. Speaker, the full implementation of the calls for justice is key to helping to ensure that our women and girls are safe and protected in Canada and here at home in the NWT. The report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls cannot and will not be put on a shelf or referenced with just words, Mr. Speaker. It demands full implementation and respect to those families who put their trust in this inquiry, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women later.