Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the changes in the correctional system that we’re trying to implement as we’ve moved into the new facility is a new approach, more of a case management approach where we have workers who work with individuals who try and assess what their problems might be and what their specific needs might be. The department does purchase space and programming from the Salvation Army. It’s an average of 10 beds a day to assist people making the transition from being in jail to being free again. The programming there is life skills and substance abuse programming to try and deal...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We had a good part of this debate in the 14th Assembly and the process was started there with the changing of some laws in recognition of court decisions. What we’re doing now is continuing on with that process. It was a commitment that was made in the Assembly at that time that we would continue to do it. So it’s necessary that we change our laws. They are discriminatory right now. We should proceed with them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, it’s really tough to find one area that is the most important. If people don’t have economic opportunity, obviously their children are not going to enjoy the same sort of security that others would. You don’t have economic opportunity if you don’t have an education. You don’t tend to be as healthy if you don’t have an educated. There are a whole range of issues that we need to deal with in our society and we need to make sure that we have healthy people making healthy choices in healthy communities if we want to make sure that we deal with this. So we have a real...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Regarding mandatory death benefits, the existing wording excludes same-sex couples from those benefits.

Mr. Speaker, I wish I had a clear, concise answer for that question. I don’t. I can’t say that child poverty exists because of one specific reason. There are a whole range of reasons that there is child poverty. We have, as a government, put a significant amount of money, as the Member noted in his statement, into programs over the last few years and I guess we must be just having trouble keeping up with the growth and the cost of living in an overheated economy. Because one would expect with the kind of investment that we’ve made with our small population, that more of a difference should...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. I’ve had some discussions with the deputy minister on this issue because it has been raised from the private sector over the past six months. We are, right now, in the process of trying to decide what level of consultation, and how much of the act we should take out for consultation or whether we should do a focused amendment or propose a focused amendment just for this one issue. Right now, that’s the stage we’re at, is trying to determine just how far to go with the proposed amendment. The answer to the Member’s question is, yes, we’re looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now, under the Conflict of Interest Act, if two people are married and one person is a member of a board or a council, they have to follow the conflict of interest provision. I will just take an example that I am familiar with: the Legislative Assembly Executive Council Act. Under the conflict of interest provisions here, if a Member is married, they have to declare all of the interests of their spouse. They have to make sure that there isn’t a conflict of interest. However, if the couple is not married, it wouldn’t necessarily apply to them. So we are fixing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If a DEA agrees that is the approach they want to take, they are welcome to take it and we will support them in doing it. We would be very happy to do that. There are an awful lot of innovative approaches being taken by DEAs across the Northwest Territories right now. In Lutselk’e they’ve been running an on-the-land program, which has been proven to dramatically increase the attendance rate for kids who are typically at risk for not attending. There are attendance programs that are run at schools all across the Northwest Territories. So this is an issue that I have...

Thank you, Madam Chair. What this is changing is, if you look at the first section in quotation marks where it says “section 6 of Bill,” there’s no number there and now it says “Bill 17.” At the time this was initially presented to committee we didn’t know what number it would be. So it would be a normal course of business to make this change as part of the committee review had they considered our bills. But this is to put the bill number in.