Glen Abernethy

The most recent technical report on the Public Works and Services building still indicates that there are limitations to that building to be used as a secure facility for corrections purposes. That building has been turned over to Public Works and Services who will do some remediation work on it and have it ready for some disposal. Somebody will be able to use that building. Unfortunately, it can’t meet the criteria or the conditions for a secure facility.

We do need a female facility. The female facility we have in Fort Smith is not meeting the needs. It needs to be upgraded, and it is in the...

Agreed.

I agree completely. We want to make sure that this type of thing doesn’t happen. What I’m committing to do is providing a bit of an analysis and report on what can be done to make sure that orders can be enforced and how they can be enforced. I’m not sure that’s going to require a legislative amendment. It may be policy, it might be regulation. We will do that research and analysis. We will bring it to committee. We will present it to committee and seek direction from committee and the Member as well. We will seek direction on how we want to move forward on that. It may be legislation; it may...

It’s an intriguing idea and it might be a great opportunity for Public Works and Services and ECE and ITI to get together to figure out how we can get local artists’ products on walls. As long as we’re not talking about consuming floor space, obviously, which is incredibly expensive, but as long as it’s walls in public parts of buildings, it’s certainly something that we should be pursuing and I’m happy to take that forward and discuss it with my ministerial colleagues to figure out exactly how we can try to make something like that happen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The rental officer has powers and authorities as identified within the Residential Tenancies Act. When a dispute occurs between a tenant and a landlord and cannot be resolved through mediation or discussion, the rental officer does have the power to make an order. Once filed with the court, that order does have the power of the courts. If one of the parties disagrees with the order, there is a right to appeal. The right to appeal is the cornerstone of the Canadian justice system and that cannot be ignored. When an appeal is filed, the Supreme Court has a couple of...

I don’t, obviously, have that information with me today, but I will commit to getting that information from the department and providing it to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I don’t.

Right now we have just completed the drafting of a new Legal Aid Act, which will be coming in front of committee soon, hopefully. We’ve also been having discussions in Cabinet and with committee about enhancing or providing some additional resources to the legal aid unit, and we will continue to have those discussions and find a way to enhance the services being provided in that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 2, Miscellaneous Statute Amendment Act, 2012, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill corrects inconsistencies and errors in statutes of the Northwest Territories. The bill deals with other matters of a minor, noncontroversial and uncomplicated nature in the statutes and repeals provisions that cease to have effect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the report, it identifies that we think we might see as many as 11 positions or 11 people in those facilities over a year, at a whole year duration, not actual days, which will put additional pressure on the facilities, absolutely. Right now we have an opportunity, given that we have Nunavut inmates as well as federal inmates in those facilities, and our first step would be to stop taking Nunavut inmates, which would leave us room for northern inmates. Thank you.