Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left is Shirley Kemeys-Jones, assistant deputy minister of the Solicitor General branch of the Department of Justice; and, Thomas Druyan on my right, legislative counsel.

I am pleased to be here today to speak about Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for its review of this bill.

The purpose of the Protection Against Family Violence Act is to provide emergency and long-term protection for victims of family violence. The act also allows emergency access to assist a person who may be the subject of family violence.

In 2011 an evaluation examined the first five years of the act’s operation, to determine how the legislation was meeting its goals. The recommendations from...

As I’ve indicated, we’re running this program for a year. We’re learning our lessons. We’re getting information. Unfortunately, we haven’t had any uptake on it, but we may. We will take that time from April 1st to the following October to draft some draft legislation and we will come forward with the legislative proposal and follow the normal legislative process in the Government of the Northwest Territories, and we will definitely have something through the House, hopefully before the end of this government.

Mr. Speaker, I can’t speak for the actions of a previous government, but I can say that when we came into the 16th Legislative Assembly, whistleblower legislation was a priority for both Regular Members and I as the Minister. Through negotiations with the union, the union requested that we work with them on a memorandum of understanding to put together some joint policies around whistleblowers, which we’re basically used as a pilot study. That work has been done. It was made effective April 1, 2013. I made a commitment that after we ran this program for a year, we’d do a bit of a review, learn...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 15, Gunshot and Stab Wound Mandatory Disclosure Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Shirley Kemeys-Jones. She’s the assistant deputy minister of the Solicitor General’s branch of the Department of Justice, and Ian Rennie, legislative council, on the right.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m pleased to be here today to speak about Bill 15, Gunshot and Stab Wound Mandatory Disclosure Act. I’d like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for its review of this bill. This legislation will require health facilities to report instances where injured persons present themselves for treatment of gunshot wounds and stab wounds. It will also protect those involved in reporting from liability. Please note that this requirement does not relate to stab wounds that are believed to be either self-inflicted or accidentally inflicted. All gunshot wounds will...

Mr. Chair, at this point, we don’t actually anticipate having to do these types of fences at other facilities in the Northwest Territories because they pretty much already exist. If you go to Hay River and you look at the facility we have there, there is a large fence that is available, but the inmates there are also significantly lower-risk inmates. The one in Fort Smith has one as well. The female facility, we will likely have to put an area with a bit of a fence, a security fence, because we will likely have female inmates in remand in that facility, unless we end up sending them to other...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Sylvia Haener. She’s the deputy minister of the Department of Justice. On my left is Kim Schofield, the director of finance, same department.

The short answer is yes. The steps required for the disposal of the Hay River hospital include a number of different steps. The Department of Health and Social Services, as I’ve indicated previously, must first identify that they don’t have any use for it. If they have some uses for it, then we will work with them to find a way to make that building meet those needs. If the old hospital is actually deemed surplus to the needs of the Department of Health and Social Services, the disposal of the facility would follow our normal provisions, which I’m sure the Member is familiar with, and that’s...