Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, there are many options. Wellness court, mental wellness court or mental health court is one; wellness courts are others. We don’t know which type of court we are going to be moving forward with. We’re going to be bringing forth those recommendations to discuss with committee. Mental health court is just one example.

With respect to working together, the Minister of Health and I have had many conversations on this, and we have both directed our staff to be involved and to work on these exact initiatives. As I have indicated, there is an interdepartmental committee...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two people in the gallery. First I’d like to recognize Norman Dei, who is the father of Amanda. He is a long-time northern resident and long-time Yellowknife resident. He is a quantity surveyor for the Department of Public Works and Services. With him today is Sherry Otis. I’d also like to recognize Sherry Otis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Oh, I thought you said Abernethy.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize 22 international students visiting Yellowknife as part of the Rotary Club’s Tip Toe with the Caribou program. The Rotary Club hosts exchange students from around the world for one year within Rotary District 5370, which encompasses parts of Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The students with us today drove from Edmonton, stopping in Hay River and Behchoko before arriving here for a four-day visit. They will be touring Yellowknife and experiencing all that the city has to offer, and while they’re here they’re going to...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to confirm that the Government of the Northwest Territories has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Union of Northern Workers on procedures for employees to safely disclose allegations of wrongdoing.

I want to be clear that we have always encouraged our employees to feel they could safely disclose information about illegal acts; gross mismanagement of public money or public assets; or substantial and specific dangers to health, safety or the environment. Our staff is our most valuable resource. We trust them and respect their judgment. When they suspect...

Mr. Speaker, the department is actually currently developing an evaluation framework to assess the success of the campaign and to inform future direction on the program. I don’t have a timeline for it, but I will commit to getting you some additional information during this sitting so that we can have an idea when that evaluation framework will be in place and when we can actually expect to see results. Of course, I am happy to share any results that we come forward with, with committee and with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Not Us! program is actually quite a successful program. We have it in 20 out of the 33 communities. It starts with a $10,000 start-up and a $5,000 ongoing fee or ongoing allowance to help maintain the program. Right now we have enough money in the budget to cover the communities and there is no plan to increase the allocation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m not certain whether that program still exists in the Department of Justice. I don’t recall it, but it sounds like a really great idea. What I’ll do is talk to the department to see what existed in the past and whether or not something could be put in place, and I will certainly come and talk to the Member and committee to see if that’s something that we might be able to do in the future.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These community policing plans are actually an agreement between the RCMP and the community itself. They sit down and talk about what the priorities are and set some of their direction. I can’t tell you what every community policing plan says. There are 33 of them. I do know that in some communities, the communities have indicated that education and visits to the school are a priority, and that is in some of the community policing plans.

At this time, that’s not something we’re planning, but if committee were to ask us to take a look at that, we’re always open to have discussions with committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.