Nunavut MLA wants to see GN family violence strategy

Nattilik MLA Jeannie Ugyuk wants more resources to deal with family violence in Nunavut. (FILE PHOTO)

The Government of Nunavut needs to put more resources into preventing family violence and complete its family violence prevention strategy, Nattilik MLA Jeannie Ugyuk said in the territorial legislature June 4.

People also need to stand up and refuse to be victimized any longer, she said.

“In traditional society there were unwritten laws and measures to prevent family violence. Sadly, we have lost much of the old ways,” Ugyuk said.

The GN has departments and other organizations working on poverty reduction, suicide prevention, business initiatives and food security, so the same level of effort should go to addressing family violence, she said.

But Ugyuk doesn’t expect the GN to fix the problem and make it go away.

“I appreciate that there are competing demands for time and resources. I just feel that much more could be done to reach out to individuals, families and communities and reduce the amount of family violence that our friends, neighbors and fellow Nunavummiut suffer,” she said. “I recognize that we cannot turn to the government or NTI [Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.] to take care of everything.”

But everyone has a right to stand up and not accept abuse, Ugyuk added.

“Society as a whole must stand up and refuse to accept family violence in our communities and in our families,” she said, expressing the need for more work in those areas.

The family violence strategy has required fine-tuning, said Keith Peterson, Nunavut’s minister responsible for health and social services, in response to Ugyuk’s questions in the legislature.

The GN, since its creation in 1999, has dealt with many policies: “this is one that is so critical to our territory that I feel it’s important to do it right,” Peterson said.

“I’m very close to taking it to cabinet for review and approval,” Peterson said. “I also wanted to ensure that we did not raise expectations with the strategy and implementation plan that we could not roll out and support.”

It’s no secret that Nunavut has a problem with family violence, he said.

When asked by Ugyuk about what is available in the communities for people faced with family violence, Peterson said that in many of the communities there are social workers and counsellors, but he couldn’t confirm precisely what resources can be found in each community.

However, there are community justice outreach workers in every community, Peterson said.

Statistics Canada recently found, according to police-reported data, that family violence is 17 times higher in Nunavut than in Ontario, and 50 per cent of it committed by victim’s spouses.

The plan for Nunavut’s family violence strategy was first announced in December 2010, with MLAs approving spending of $177,000 from the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs to the Department of Health and Social Services for completion of the strategy.