Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. The judicial system is another arm of this government and as a Minister of Justice I cannot tell the chief judge or judge what to do with respect to sentencing. I have to respect their decision. The final decision lies with the judges. There’s a federal law that they have to follow as well. There are various aspects of independent cases. So I cannot interfere as Justice Minister on those decisions that are made. The final decisions are made by the judges. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, yes, we definitely do support the teachers that we have across the Northwest Territories. When it comes to challenges such as the housing issues in the communities for professionals, those are the areas that we need to work at within our committees. So, yes, we’ll work closely with the Member and also other Members as well, and the Members of the Executive. Mahsi.

We do recognize the pressure that’s out there in the Northwest Territories, especially in those small, isolated communities. Finding suitable units can be a challenge and the high cost of living in the communities as well. With that we have initiated, through the refocusing committee, that there’s interdepartmental groups that are working on identifying funds to deal with those matters at hand. There are challenges before us to find suitable units for the teachers and other professionals as well. We do have an interdepartmental committee that’s working currently and are actively involved in...

Mahsi. There is a contract with a physician to provide services to inmates at the North Slave Correctional Centre, but at the same time we do have somebody in training right now to be a psychologist. That individual completed her degree program and also needs to complete one year under supervision before she can be registered. So that individual has a few more months to go, Mr. Speaker, to be qualified. So it is in the works and it’s going to be happening this summer. Mahsi.

Mahsi. Within our Justice department we do explore other venues, other jurisdictions, as well, to seek out the best practices, different programs that may not be available to us in the Northwest Territories so that we don’t reinvent the wheel. I’m glad the Member is referring to us exploring different jurisdictions, programming for inmates. So those are the areas I can commit to through my department to seek out the information from other jurisdictions. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, this information specific to SFA subsidy programming, there is going to be a review. Maybe this is an area that we can definitely look at, what the Member is referring to, so it’s a simple task for students to go through the process. I hear the concern of the Member and it may not be only one concern. There are other concerns as well. That’s why we are conducting this review of the SFA programming, the subsidy programming and other areas. Mr. Speaker, we are doing what we can to resolve our issues at hand and this is an area that we will definitely look at. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Mr. David Reid, president of the NWTTA.

Mahsi. There’s double time, time and a half, time. A lot of times the number of days are waiting for their trial. Those are the discussions that we had at a recent FPT meeting as well, and there’s been a lot of debate on the 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2, two times or double you can call it. So those are discussions that have been brought forward across Canada and we do raise our concerns as well.

There have been several cases, Mr. Speaker, that even young offenders have, like, 40 or 50 different cases before them, but they are free for various reasons under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and the acts are...

The federal funding, I don’t have that information specifically. I just highlighted our department and Health and Social Services’ contribution to Aurora College. I will gather that information on federal funding, if it does exist, to the Members.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The program that we deliver through Aurora College, the funding that’s required is $2.7 million from ECE to Aurora College for a bachelor of nursing, special work in nursing, health access programs. As well, Aurora College receives additional money from the Department of Health and Social Services in the amount of $511,000 to cover the masses of Nursing, Nurse Practitioner and Introduction to Advanced Practice programs. This is funding that’s been required for these programs.