Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the plan is we will be acting on amending some of the policies and programs in place. There have been recommendations brought forward to our attention. My department is going through each and every recommendation on which ones should be expedited and others might take a bit longer time. We will be going through each recommendation and see which recommendations we could implement right away. We will be informing the Members as we progress. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, this is an area that is part of the specialized unit across the board dealing with the Aboriginal organizations. It has been established with expertise when it comes to lawyers in different areas. We do have lawyers but they are dedicated to their own respective roles as well. This is specifically in a target area. I will get my deputy to elaborate a bit more on that process. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, this is the only unit that we have that deals with across the departmental discussion. I take the Member’s concerns and issues that are being brought forward, but this has been in the works for quite some time now and we feel that it’s needed and it’s part of our consultation process. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. That would be part of the ongoing work that we’ll continue to have with the Interdepartmental Working Relations and ensuring that this consultation framework remains current and consistent with the evolving laws and best practices across the board. Also communicating changes and updates to the framework to GNWT departments on a timely basis. Those are just some of the areas that we’ll continue to work with departments.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. We’ll try to continue to spend more money in the Member’s riding as much as we can. Court circuit of course is at the discretion of the judge. At the same time, there’s got to be a cost effective of how they travel. Sometimes the court is done early so the plane waits on them and then a couple of hours later they fly back as opposed to the plane going back and coming back again. That would almost double or triple the cost. Those are just cost factors that the judges take into consideration.

The court workers, we’ve expanded their role. We’re trying to utilize their service...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Most of the discussion that the Member addressed I agree with. The 18 recommendations that are being brought forward, the implementation should be sooner than later. I agree with him. Those are the areas that we are pursuing and we will follow through with those recommendations.

The clinical psychologist, we’ve dealt with that in the House. As I stated in the House, we will have a trained individual within a month or so from now and we’re looking forward to that individual coming on board as a fully fledged clinical psychologist. That’s in the works.

The life sentence versus...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I agree that this is an important matter that’s before us and we continue to press our entire department to focus on these areas. When we talk about protection against family violence it covers broad sections of different programming. We can touch on the program that we currently deliver and the new initiatives that would be undergoing. We presented to the standing committee this morning and various initiatives are undergoing. Yes, this is important for our department along with other programming that’s before us too. There are other pressing matters. Like with this...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This is an area that we have explored for quite some time now, on how we can get around the system, because there has been a few cases where they want to be reassessed and the only way to do that is through the court venue and, of course, it costs money to go through the process. So through our research in different areas, we are still doing some additional research, but I’m hoping that at the end of March we should have a program in place that we’re hoping deals with the child support payment recalculation services. This is an area that will very much, I guess, cover off or...

Mr. Speaker, although it has taken over two years, we want to have a program that is beneficial and that will resolve some issues or concerns are being brought to our attention through these 18 recommendations. We want to have the best product that is suitable to improve the offender supervision and also rehabilitation. The Member has alluded to rehabilitation on numerous occasions. We want to have the best product that we can deliver. That is probably why it is taking us some time, but we are coming to a conclusion in that respect. One of the goals, of course, either at the end of this...