Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. I've had an increase in enquiries within my constituency in regard to options for people who are in domestic violence situations. I would like to know who the lead department within the GNWT is for domestic violence? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be frank about it. There is not one single department responsible for domestic violence, nor is there a Minister responsible for domestic violence. What there is, fortunately, is a recognition by this Cabinet of that gap, and a recognition of the need to fix that gap. What I would offer instead is to commit to the Member that I will take it upon myself to ensure that there is an answer to that question in the life of the Assembly, sooner rather than later. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the response from the Minister, and I appreciate as well that she stopped herself when she said the length of this Assembly, because I think it's really important, with us having the second-highest rate of domestic violence in Canada, that we need to give this an owner right away, preferably by the end of this sitting. My next question is: will the Department of Justice, or whoever the lead department is for this, commit to putting together an information resource that we can distribute to people to let them know what their options are for the next chapter of their lives that does not include domestic violence?

There is no shortage of resources put together often by the GNWT. The challenge that I acknowledge exists is that there are so many different resources put together by different agencies in different departments of the GNWT. Yes, again, I am prepared to commit that we do a better job of organizing them. I don't know what that package might look like or what the source will be, but I hear the Member's point, and, again, that is not an unreasonable request.

Would the Minister be willing to commit to identifying, with her colleagues, a lead department for domestic violence before the end of this sitting?

There is an interdepartmental working group that's not really, I realize, the most accessible place for Members of the Assembly or members of the public to access Cabinet on a specific issue. I'm just concerned with the idea that it's going to happen within the life of the current sitting. That's only another month away. I'm happy to make that a target, but I'm hesitant to go so far as to make it a commitment. When I make a commitment, as I think I've said before, I take that fairly seriously. I'll make it a target. At the very least, I will report back on what progress is made in terms of achieving the goal within the life of the Assembly.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I definitely appreciate that. Over the course of gathering information from multiple different departments, it took my CA and I about a month to put together all of the information and the resources that the Minister referred to that are available through the government, and that's not very useful or realistic for someone who is suffering from domestic violence. My next and final question for the Minister is: is there a plan for this Assembly to create a domestic violence action plan? Thank you.

That's not a new request, and I certainly want to begin by acknowledging my own awareness of the depth of the problem and the challenge. I've spoken to it at the Ministers' meetings that I've attended already thus far. I do know that the federal government has a strategy and they're in the midst of developing an action plan, and I expect that it would be prudent for us to at least see what progress there is made at a federal level to ensure that, if there is funding associated with whatever might be happening at that level, we can ensure that the identified departmental lead can then try to access that funding. There are still a few pieces moving at the moment. I need to see how they play out. Some of those will be put into motion, I believe, over the next month with respect to, first, working within our own departments, and second, knowing what the direction of the federal budget might be. Those two things might help us give direction as to how much we can achieve in terms of putting together an action plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today, I gave my Member's statement for women in trades. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: how many apprentices, in total, do we have in the Northwest Territories, and how many of them are women?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are 320 registered apprentices in the Northwest Territories. Of that 320, 15 are women. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Fifteen out of 320, I believe, is a statistic that shows that we're really not tapping into a huge section of our labour pool; that is, women who are willing to enter the trades. Is the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment willing to create a women in trades program?

As part of the apprenticeship or ATOC strategy, we've already committed to that, and we're working on that. We hope to launch the program later this year, and it's going to be similar to the ones in Alberta and Nova Scotia, and it's going to be focused on getting more women in trades. There are other partners in the territory, as well; Skills Canada NWT has launched a program aimed at girls in middle school to help them start getting interested in the trades, as well. There are a lot of people who we could be talking to about this. Five percent of the registered apprentices are women. We're missing 45 percent of the population who could be in that. It's something that we are really trying to work on.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's commitment to develop this program. In reviewing the Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Strategy, ATOC as he referred to it, there were a number of recommendations regarding that. Has the department taken action on the working group's suggestions, and will the Minister commit to implementing those suggestions coming out of the ATOC strategy?

The Member is correct, there has been a lot of discussion. There are a lot of recommendations, and we're working on it. Not everything has happened, but things are happening, and I can get a more detailed report for the Member and provide updates whenever the Member would like. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, monsieur le President. I want to ask some questions of the Minister of Finance, who also has responsibility for human resources. Most Canadian jurisdictions ensure that employees are provided with domestic violence leave, effective January 1, 2020. Our Employment Standards Act provides up to five days of paid family violence leave, another five days of unpaid leave, and maybe even 15 weeks of unpaid leave with proper notice. I supported these changes, but our main collective agreement with UNW only provides for three days of paid domestic violence leave. Is the Minister of aware of this difference in domestic violence leave for GNWT employees and other employees, and what action, if any, is she prepared to take to deal with these less-generous provisions for our employees? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The collective agreement does have a difference in it as compared to what is in the employment standards provisions, but it actually does also say that more than three days of leave can be approved by the employer and that the approval cannot be unreasonably denied. Certainly, we could take the step of at least reminding all of the GNWT that, indeed, one would not want to deny leave in circumstances when there is a case of domestic violence leave. If they have been given the three days and are requesting further, I would expect that, in many, many cases, it would be unreasonable to deny it. While it's worded differently, it's not quite as strict as that, and I certainly wouldn't want anyone to be discouraged, if they need leave, from going and speaking to their responsible supervisor to provide that information. As far as then changing the collective agreement, there will always be further bargaining and further negotiations that take place at new rounds of bargaining. If this is an issue that is seen by the employees, then we will see it at that point and deal with it in due course. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.