Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As every inmate comes into the facility, whether they are Aboriginal or not, they have their own case manager who will help develop a tailored plan to specifically meet their needs and identify what programs are appropriate based on their sentence and direction given by the courts. We do have psychologists on staff. We do have drug and alcohol programs and we have access to AA and other programs that are available that would suit the specific needs of individual inmates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Lots.

We have in-house psychologists and other professionals that can help individuals. We have programming available to all of our staff, which is the Mental Health First Aid, which the Department of Health is doing some work on right now to customize to suit or be more specific to northern realities. We are going to have a bunch of our staff trained to be providers of that first aid training, so it’s going to be available to all of our staff within the facilities. But we don’t rely just in-house. We do access services outside of the facility, be it psychiatrist or other professionals as deemed...

I believe we have seven core areas that we’re looking at, eight, I think. Security of tenure in subsidized public housing, inclusion of transitional and other housing, enforcement of orders, unofficial occupants, conversion to subsidized public housing, retention of inspection reports, consistency with the Condominium Act and other potential amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act are already currently being considered and are scheduled for consultation this spring and summer will include that review. Domestic violence is also something that we’re considering.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is the deputy minister of Justice, Sylvia Haener, and on my left is the director of finance, Kim Schofield.

As the Member knows, we haven’t looked at the New Zealand model, but thank you for bringing it to our attention. We will look at the New Zealand model…(inaudible)... I’d love to, but I can’t remember what I was saying. I’m just kidding. I actually do remember this time. I do remember. The answer to the Member is no, we haven’t looked at the New Zealand model and thanks for bringing it to our attention. I will have the department look at the New Zealand model and see if there are any lessons in there that we can learn and apply here. We do know that the Coroners Act needs revision. The coroner...

Thank you. I’m not certain how often it is actually ordered within the justice system by a judge, who is a separate branch or arm of government. But I will go to the department and I will try to get that information for the Member. Thank you.

What I’ll do is commit to pulling together the statistics that we have to date and get some additional information for the Member and committee just on the activities, the types of activities of the children’s lawyer. Even though we have that little gap in the middle of the amount of time that they’ve been in place so far, so that they have a bit of information. I’ll do that.

Mr. Speaker, if it’s court ordered, then it would be required, but to force an inmate who hasn’t had a direct order to participate in alcohol and drug treatment programming would be against the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, so we would not be forcing people to do something that they are unwilling to do unless it was court ordered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right I have Sylvia Haener, deputy minister of the Department of Justice; and Kim Schofield, who is the director of finance with the Department of Justice.