The NWT government hopes to complete a new action plan on family violence by the summer of 2026, just under three years after committing to produce one.
Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan told the territory on Friday there should be “no more strategies, reports, hand-wringing, until we’ve taken action on the main recommendations that keep being raised over and over.”
One of those recommendations was an action plan to implement new initiatives and enhance existing programs and services. The GNWT promised to deliver such a plan in a 2023 document.
Asked by Morgan when that action plan would emerge, Lucy Kuptana – the NWT’s minister responsible for the status of women – said the “projected completion date for the action plan is June of 2026.”
An inter-departmental GNWT working group is helping to devise the plan.
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“I appreciate that we do now have a date for the action plan to be released,” Morgan told the legislature on Friday.
“I would just like to know what is going to be done differently this time. We’ve had many working groups and action plans in the past.
“What will be done differently this time that will lead to transformative change, not only in government, policy and legislation and the justice system, but also leading to widespread access to safe homes and transitional housing that would really allow survivors to take their power back?”
Kuptana, responding, said GNWT departments “need to work together to make better informed decisions.”
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“We also need to be responsible as leaders to speak out against family violence and violence in general,” the minister said.
“We need to raise our children and grandchildren to uphold traditional values and teach them that women and children are sacred.
“We need to do better both as a government and in communities, and with leadership speaking out against family violence.”
Morgan had earlier accused the territorial government of continually missing “opportunities to make fundamental changes.”
“Survivors need safe housing options. We don’t yet have safe homes in every region and the ones that exist – for example, the safe homes run by the YWCA with partners in Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope – are constantly in danger of losing funding and shutting down,” she said.
“We need more transitional housing options because people cannot stay in a shelter long term. We need better ways of enforcing emergency protection orders and ways to make EPOs more responsive to changing needs. We need a justice system that is accessible, that doesn’t retraumatize people, and that has options for reconciliation and healing. Survivors need better access to legal aid. Abusers need supportive housing too, and opportunities to heal and unlearn violent behaviours.
“These are big, expensive changes, but the cost of the status quo is much, much more.”
