Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Our shelters in the Northwest Territories are variably funded, for sure. It's fascinating to me that the most northern shelters, with the highest cost of things like food and utilities, have the lowest funding. Across the north, expenses are high, and the funding just doesn't se

Status of Women committee  I absolutely think there's a difference. I don't think indigenous women have the same access as you would find in southern Canada, for sure.

Status of Women committee  I'd like to see more shelter services for indigenous women, because they face such high rates of violence and such high lethality. I think we need to ensure that they're better protected and have options available to them. I'm not familiar, for example, with the shelter system

Status of Women committee  Yes, I would like to see core funding. I'd like there to be a funding model that is fair across the country and provides adequately for shelters for women. Right now, the funding models across Canada vary widely. I would like to see it be much better and more standardized, so tha

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  I think the way out is at the community level; it's for communities to really tackle the issue of violence in the communities. We did a piece of work—it's several years ago now—where we went into some of the small communities with indigenous staff and just talked to women about

Status of Women committee  Yes, that's right.

Status of Women committee  I would say they need to better support the shelters that exist so that they don't have to close for part of the year, and also to construct shelters in areas where there aren't shelters. The three regions I referenced are all in the Northwest Territories. I know the Yukon has

Status of Women committee  The flights would be paid for by the government, but you have to go through the social worker in your community and that person might be related to you or your partner so that poses a problem. If you get approval to fly out, that cost is covered. Our staff and the staff of the ot

Status of Women committee  That's an excellent question. We absolutely need more safe, affordable housing. We have one second-stage housing facility here in Yellowknife. I know Whitehorse has one second-stage housing facility. Nunavut has none, and I know Iqaluit is trying to have a second-stage facility.

Status of Women committee  Likely women go back to their partners and their communities because of the housing situation. That's the most common outcome. We've had women coming into our shelter 14 times or more, because it's their respite from the abuse. They come with their children, and then when they fe

Status of Women committee  The staff are generally indigenous women who have had experiences of violence. We do training with the staff, and we also get the staff together from all five shelters in the NWT. We do training as a larger group and bring in resources to do that training.

Status of Women committee  I think there should be a shelter in each of the regions. That would mean probably three more shelters: in Fort Simpson, Norman Wells and Behchoko. It would be nice to see if there could be some form of a safe house in some of the other communities. Sometimes that happens informa

Status of Women committee  How would I explain the fact that it's so high in northern Canada?