Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can certainly, as I said I would to Mr. Hawkins, take a look at the issue of a registry and see whether or not that would work in the Northwest Territories. In this sort of situation, the new Youth Criminal Justice Act would allow a different approach, and that is an intensive supervision program. So in the future with this kind of offender, it's likely that there would be a more intensive supervision program in place that would reduce the chances of this kind of offence happening again. Unfortunately, that wasn't in place when he was released the last time. I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of the two young people is a very incredible situation, and it's certainly horrible for the young people and their families. I am terribly sympathetic to that, but I have an issue here where there's a person who has been charged with an offence. It's an alleged offence and for the Minister of Justice to be talking about a case while it's before the courts is completely wrong.

So I can speak in general about the issue of what we're trying to do about crime in the Northwest Territories. I have met with the chief superintendent of the RCMP and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure that I really understand what the Member is looking for and maybe I could ask him to restate it, if that would be acceptable.

Mr. Speaker, that's a hypothetical question that I'm having trouble answering. I'm not sure if it would have helped. It's clearly a regrettable situation that happened, but I’m not sure whether or not a sex offender registry in the Northwest Territories would have helped to identify this person. In this situation, the question as to whether or not to identify this person would have been made, I think, by the parole system as to whether or not he was qualified to be released. The situation was that under the terms and conditions of his release order, there was no specific order about how he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I suspect that there is overall equity right now, if you take into account the amount of subsidy that is paid to support the apprentices through their work throughout the year. This government contributes a significant amount of money to providing salaries to the apprentices while they're working. One of the advantages you have in the apprenticeship program is that generally you get through that program without thousands and thousands of dollars of student debt, which is unlike post-secondary programs for university students. Right now somebody can come...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories program provides a wage subsidy for employers to take apprenticeships on, so that a significant portion of a first-year apprentice's salary is, in fact, paid by the Government of the Northwest Territories, through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, in order to facilitate the young people getting into the trades. The government also provides funding for the school training that is required to be taken by all apprentices, so there is support for the books and that sort of training. I think that what we're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Education, Culture and Employment has been advised by Justice that the IBAs are private contracts and we do not have access to them, so we are unable at this point to determine the answer to whether or not they are compensation or cash payments as a gift or whatever, income. I am prepared again to review the entire income support program, and would be happy to discuss that with the Standing Committee on Social Programs. But I am reluctant to make any one-off changes. I would like to take the opportunity to spend some time, work with the committee to...

Do I hear Scrooge? Mr. Speaker, one way to indicate to Members…The way the program works is kind of like a glass of water. Everybody needs this much water in their glass. If you start with half a glass, then the program will top it up, but all of the water in the glass is counted. So as you have resources, no matter where they come from, they are counted as part of what you bring to the table. The income support program is offered as a…

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I'm not entirely familiar with the educational requirements for those positions. I suspect that they may not have specific training requirements to begin with. I know that in the past we have approached community organizations, bands and so on, to offer the program, because it has been seen largely as a fairly simple project to fill in the blanks on a form to determine whether or not income support is available. So I suspect that there may be more training that's required, but I can't answer the question in terms of specific training that's required.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that I could provide that information. I will check with the Legal Services Board and see how much statistical data they can provide to us and how quickly, and we'll endeavor to distribute that to all Members of the Assembly as soon as I can get it.