Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table two documents. The first document is entitled “2011 Annual Report of the Public Utilities Board of the Northwest Territories” and the second document is entitled “Northwest Territories Law Foundation Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2011.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I recently attended the F/T/P meetings in PEI with the Ministers of Justice and I did have an opportunity to sit down with the other two Ministers from the other two provinces and we had the same issues and concerns about Bill C-10. We’re all being affected slightly different because of different realities. Nunavut’s got a bigger problem because they actually have no capacity in their jails whereas here in the Northwest Territories we do have capacity and the Yukon just built a new facility, but the impacts of the bill are going to be the same in many ways. So we have agreed to work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re working on that right now. We’re very interested to actually identify what those costs are and break them down so that they’re reasonable. Some of the costs are easier to identify. The cost of facilities is certainly an easier cost to come up with, but when it actually comes down to how much it’s going to cost for legal aid and how much it’s going to cost for court time, or even how much it’s going to cost in the facilities itself, because we actually have to do an analysis of the actual cases that have gone through the system and try and figure out how the new...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to update Members about the new office within the Department of Justice: the office of the children’s lawyer.

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, which Canada ratified in 1991, children have the right to be heard in proceedings affecting them. Canada has a legal obligation to ensure the provisions of the convention are met, yet very few jurisdictions in Canada have a system to offer independent counsel to children in legal proceedings affecting them to ensure that their voices are heard.

In October of this year the Department of Justice opened the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two people: Wendy Uhlenberg, who is the negotiations advisor for the Alberta and Northwest Territories Aboriginal Policing Directorate; and Harley Crowshoe, who is the regional manager of the Alberta and Northwest Territories Aboriginal Policing Directorate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my wife, Carolyn Smith, in the gallery as well.

I commit that in the research that the working group does that they will include those types of discussions and they will certainly include all of the research and analysis that my colleague Mr. Bromley had prepared as part of the motion in the 16th Assembly. We are looking to collect as much information as we can and to include all of that. I commit that that information will certainly be included.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the 16th Legislative Assembly I believe my colleague Mr. Bromley put forward a motion that was seconded by the Member from Frame Lake, which asked us to begin research and examine options for potential benefits of the introduction of a mental health court. Since we’ve come back as the 17th Assembly, I’ve had conversations with my colleague Mr. Bromley, but also my colleague Mr. Beaulieu about this particular opportunity.

The Minister of Health has indicated that they wish to be moving forward with more prevention and treatment options within the Department of Health...

I believe there are already plans in the works to put a new facility in Fort Smith. As far as a male facility, there are no plans at this time and we would be open to discussion. But North Slave Correctional Facility was designed to have a pod added on to it, so it may prove to be the most cost-effective place to add on to male facilities in the Northwest Territories.

We can do those things. We have to work with the communities, as the Member indicated. The communities have to take some initiative to help report these things when they are happening so we can get members in.

Last summer the RCMP also conducted enhanced patrols of lakes and the Mackenzie River, and extended highway patrols took place from July 23rd to August 5th involving several communities and partners in the “M” Division with the Yukon. We are working with our territorial partners. The objective of the patrol was to enhance public safety and police presence through high visibility and check...