Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Monday, July 16, 2007

IQALUIT - As Canadian leaders gathered in Iqaluit for the annual status of women conference, the head of a local shelter jumped at the chance to give them a frontline look at the lives of abused women in her own community.

"This was my first opportunity, and now they have a better understanding of the challenges we face, have been facing, for many years," said Napatchie McRae, executive director of the Qimaavik women's shelter.

The conference took place July 10 and 11.

On Tuesday, Bev Oda, the federal minister responsible for the status of women, toured the facility with her territorial and provincial counterparts.

The following day, McRae spoke to the group to further illustrate the situation.

"We had one past victim who had a chance to speak up about homelessness in Iqaluit. We spoke about our shelter, women and children fleeing violence," she said.

Qimaavik, which has close to 20 beds, was operating at full capacity as of press time.

The Apex centre caters solely to women and children who are escaping from violent situations, rather than operating as a homeless shelter.

The biggest problem it faces is the retention of staff due to a lack of funding, McRae said.

"We spoke on how the contribution agreement hasn't changed in many years, and how they are paid the lowest wages, closer to minimum wages in the rest of Canada, yet it's a real demanding job they are doing," she explained.

"We have many dedicated workers here, but you can't live paycheque to paycheque, and eventually they have to leave for a better-paying job."

During the meetings, northern leaders discussed concerns that the $56 million in funding for aboriginal shelters and prevention programs, announced by Oda last month, will not be made available to off-reserve shelters.

While Oda did not announce any specific new funding initiatives, she did address the issue at a press conference on Wednesday.

"We have met with the ministers responsible for Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and we have agreed that we will work to address that specific issue, and I have made a commitment to work with them to identify and address the need," she said.

Over the course of the two days, the ministers approved the 2007 Iqaluit Declaration, which deals specifically with the needs of aboriginal women and children.

"There is a focus on aboriginal issues this year, which is something that as an aboriginal woman myself...pleases me very much," said Leona Aglukkaq, who co-chaired the meeting in her capacity as minister responsible for the status of women in Nunavut.

The document acknowledged that "aboriginal women in the North experience far higher rates of sexualized and family violence than the national average."

It also pointed to recommendations made during the 2007 National Aboriginal Women's Summit, held last month in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The ministers responsible for the Status of Women have met annually since 1981.

This was the first time a conference was held in Nunavut. NWT hosted the previous northern meeting in 1998.

"We worked really hard last year to bring to bring the federal, provincial, territorial ministers to Nunavut to see first hand some of the challenges and opportunities we have to offer in northern Canada," Aglukkaq said.

Next year's meeting will be held in Manitoba in September.