Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A significant amount of work has been done around child and family services. The 16th Legislative Assembly did a comprehensive review where this exact question came up on a number of occasions. Also, the Auditor General recently brought forward a fairly scathing report of child and family services here in the Northwest Territories, and committee has been very, very, very active in articulating their concerns and their desire for significant change. As a result, we are moving forward with Building Stronger Families, an action plan to transform the child and family...

We actually have filled a large number of the physician positions on a permanent basis. But given that we do have a contract here in the Northwest Territories, those physicians who are resident here are entitled to education time and sick time as well as annual time. We want to make sure that we are continuing to provide services, so there is still a use of locums. But for the most part, in Yellowknife, in Hay River, in the Beaufort-Delta we’ve been able to get physicians in on a permanent basis. But until all positions are filled that way, we will continue to use some locums.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The recruitment and retention of physicians continues to be a challenge, but I think at this point in time we are actually doing fairly well. We have moved to a system where all the physicians are actually employees of one body rather than multiple bodies. This has actually given us some opportunities, because individuals can now have rights and access to Stanton even if they don’t happen to live in Yellowknife.

When we originally went to this one model, the expectation was that we’d be having physicians in Yellowknife who can actually provide services in other...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I do.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulate the NWT Montessori Society on their 40th anniversary. The society has been part of the Great Slave riding for many years, delivering a high quality Montessori Casa preschool program from the society’s location on 52nd Street.

Yesterday the society celebrated their 40th anniversary with festivities at their downtown and N.J. MacPherson locations. Students were treated to a surprise visit from a mock Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori method, collected material from a time capsule and enjoyed a reception with cake and fruit.

The...

Thank you. I appreciate the comment, and we’re working with our partners, including the different French associations here in the Northwest Territories as we move forward.

Should this legislation be passed, it will take a bit of time, six to 12 months to roll it out. But to ensure that we are still able to provide French juries here in the Northwest Territories, we have agreements with three different provinces that will allow us to hold French jury trials in their jurisdictions until such time as we get our stuff in place in six to 12 months.

Now, as I’ve indicated, it is rare that this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today are Emily Ingarfield, the manager of policy and planning on my left; and Kelly McLaughlin, director of legislation on my right.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be here today to speak about Bill 38, An Act to Amend the Jury Act.

The main focus of the amendments to the Jury Act is to permit the Department of Justice to develop regulations that will allow French-speaking residents of Yellowknife to be effectively identified for inclusion on a specialized French jury list. There are also a number of minor amendments, including one that will add Public Prosecution Service of Canada employees to the list of persons exempted from jury service. Another amendment will repeal the provision of the act that references fees...

The act may not focus specifically on grandparents and elders or other family members, but the actual application of building stronger families moving forward is focused on the families. It is focused on providing supports to the families in situations of neglect to help those families find the solutions to the root causes of that neglect. Therefore, we’ll be able to keep the children in our communities, in our regions and in their homes for as long as possible, hopefully, until they’re ready to go off to college or university.

This is the direction we’re taking, and like I said, I’m happy to...

Research has shown that in the Northwest Territories the vast majority of apprehensions that have existed to date have resulted as a result of neglect, as opposed to abuse, which is one of the reasons we’re going to a completely differential response of dealing with children in those abuse situations.

The new approach is supporting families, finding ways to support families so that we can actually keep the children with the families. If they do need counseling, if they need all these other types of supports, we’re going to be there to work with them to find solutions.

When it’s abuse, we still...