Thank you, Madam Chair.
Welcome, and thank you for being here.
Susanne, I think you mentioned something when you were speaking about partnerships, and I just want to assure everyone that certainly our government does take the issue of violence against aboriginal women very seriously, and does continue to work in partnerships with provincial governments, territorial governments, aboriginal people, and other stakeholders, in order to develop effective and appropriate solutions. We work quite a bit with partnerships.
I'm also parliamentary secretary for the status of women, so I know we've also funded some great projects that address the needs of aboriginal women and girls. For example, in B.C. I think it was around $186,000. That was a 24-month project that responds to the specific needs of aboriginal women who have experienced abuse, as they transition to violence-free lives. In the Yukon, it was about $265,000 for a 36-month project that assisted aboriginal women to transition to violence-free lives. We also committed funding of over $24 million for two years for the family violence prevention program. That allows the programming to be offered at an annual funding level of over $30.4 million.
I would like to ask maybe Carole or Anita if you could speak to the importance of this funding and how your organization has benefited from it.