Northwest Territories

Article 2(e)

822. The Department of Social Services continues its financial support to women's groups, and other organizations, for shelters to provide safe environments for abused women and their children, and for counselling, referral services, advocacy services and for public education programs on violence.

823. The Department of Justice provides funding for community victims services programs. The Victim's Assistance Committee, appointed by the Minister of Justice, administers a victims assistance fund that is generated through victim fine surcharges. Funding is allocated to victim-related activities including training, community conferences, public information and research.

Article 2(f)

824. In the third report of Canada, reference was made to a review initiated to examine the functioning of the justice system as it involves and affects women and children. This resulted in a report, entitled The Justice House, delivered to the Northwest Territories Minister of Justice in May 1992. The report made 90 recommendations to both territorial and federal levels of government as well as to agencies with justice-related responsibilities, on improvements to make the administration of justice more fair to women. The report focused on issues of knowledge and education, access to justice, allocation of resources and legislation. A response with an action plan was tabled in the Legislative Assembly in December 1993. The response recognized that the justice system plays an important role in achieving equality for women. Many of the recommendations of the report have been acted upon by the Government. Work is still being undertaken on others.

825. Government initiatives on the elimination of violence against women are discussed under Article 5.

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Article 3

826. The Advisory Council on the Status of Women Act was replaced in 1990 with the Status of Women Council Act which created the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories. The Status of Women Council Act enables the Council to hire its own staff, to seek outside funding and to offer programs. This has facilitated the Council in greatly expanding its activities and raising the profile of women's equality concerns in the Northwest Territories. One of the objects of the Council is to promote a change of attitudes within the community in order that women may enjoy equality of opportunity.

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Article 4.1

827. There has been a modification to the Government of the Northwest Territories Affirmative Action Policy to target women who are aspiring to management and non-traditional occupations. Such women applicants have Priority 2 status, coming after Indigenous Aboriginal Persons who have Priority 1 status. During the reporting period, women in the public service have out-numbered men, although they have been in the minority in management and non-traditional positions. Women in management positions have risen from 21 percent to 27 percent. Women in non-traditional positions have risen from 12 percent to 13 percent.

828. The Government of the Northwest Territories has developed procedures to allow people with family and other commitments to balance those commitments with their employment schedule. One mechanism is job sharing, where two employees share the hours of work of one full time position. The other is "flex-time" to allow employees to alter the start and end times of their work day while maintaining their normal number of hours worked each day.

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Article 5(a)

829. In December 1993, the Government brought forward a background paper entitled Building a Strategy for Dealing with Violence in the N.W.T. which identified the need to address the issue of violence, particularly violence against women and children, by working to eliminate societal attitudes of tolerance and denial of violence. The Government is preparing a violence strategy for the fall of 1994.

830. In February 1994, the Legislative Assembly passed a Declaration adopting "zero tolerance" toward violence and endorsing the goal of eliminating family violence by the year 2000. The Declaration also encouraged municipal governments, Aboriginal organizations and other groups and agencies to adopt similar declarations. Some groups have done so.

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Article 7(b)

831. Refer to the commentary under Article 4.1 on the Government of the Northwest Territories Affirmative Action Policy.

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Article 12.1

832. The "Women's Health Project" began in 1992 as a result of a partnership between the Department of Health and the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories to further the education and empowerment of northern women as active participants in their own health care and health care service delivery. A package, nearing completion, will include pamphlets on self-esteem, health care rights and responsibilities, questions to ask the health care provider and safer sex. It will also include posters and a video on sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. The second stage of the project will include public service announcements for television on sexually transmitted diseases, a video for adolescent girls on healthy lifestyle choices and, in collaboration with the Cancer Society, a video on breast and cervical cancers.

833. The Department of Health continues its work with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment on a school health curriculum that provides a forum for instruction on sexuality and birth control.

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Article 14.2(b)

834. The "Women's Health Project", described in the commentary under Article 12.1, is developing educational materials through wide consultation that includes many northern women who live in remote communities. Plain language is used in the pamphlets and they are being translated into Aboriginal languages.

835. With a view to assisting rural women with low-risk pregnancies to have their babies closer to home, with the support and participation of their families, the Department of Health initiated the "Rankin Inlet Pilot Project" in 1993. The project is examining the extent to which women and infants can be helped safely through the perinatal period with the assistance of midwives, the extent to which the cultural and psychological needs of the women involved can be met and the extent to which the process is cost-effective.

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Article 16.1

836. The departments of Justice and Social Services continue their work on family law reform. In September 1992, the Family Law Review Report The Report of the Ministerial Working Group on Family Law Reform was submitted to the ministers of Justice and Social Services. The Report has been analyzed and the departments have released discussion papers on the implementation of recommendations. Many of the proposals focus on achieving equitable resolution of issues following the breakdown of relationships. This will have the effect of enhancing the equality of women.

837. The Maintenance Enforcement Program, that began operations in 1989, pursuant to the Maintenance Orders Enforcement Act, has had a steadily increasing workload and rate of success in enforcing support orders during the reporting period. A communications strategy has been initiated to increase public awareness of the Program and of family support obligations.

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ANNEX

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