Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As the Assembly knows, we have increased our funding to arts and performers, a total of approximately $770,000 over 2009-10 and 2010-11. There have been some various activities that happened in the Northwest Territories and outside the Northwest Territories. I can certainly provide the list to the Member, because it is a long list, but I can touch on just a few of them.

We have sponsored an entry into the Northern Festival Presenters Conference in Yellowknife, March 2010; we had Aklavik Gwich’in Dancers, Arctic Winter Games, in Grande Prairie; the NWT Arts Council...

There’s been a lot of talk, whether it’s with the MP or Ministers. We also asked specifically, too, if it was in their capital plans. All the information that was given to us was there, was money identified, but some are in future years. Until we see the actual confirmation from the federal Minister, we’re at a stage where we want to get more detailed information, more concrete information from the Minister. That’s why I want to follow through with the actual meeting, to meet with him one on one. I’m hoping to get some sort of concrete answer from him on where it stands.

For Members’...

Again the program in the Sahtu region under the leadership of the elders there has been very successful, but we haven’t really seen or heard anything on the breakdown of the equipment to date. Definitely if there is a concern that may have been brought forward, I’d like to hear that concern or those suggestions. We’re always open to improving our programming. If there are problems or issues with certain equipment, definitely we need to deal with that, because safety is the prime factor and we need to deal with that right away.

We closely monitor our institutions in the Northwest Territories, especially when it comes to capacity within our institutions. There is room for growth, but at the same time we’re trying to take inmates out to on-the-land programs in the Sahtu region in the Member’s riding. Again, this has been very successful and we will continue to do so, and we’re opening that up to other regions that are interested as well. So, Mr. Chair, this is an area that, again, we’ll monitor. But I can assure the Member that there is room within our institutions and if we’re at a crunch, then definitely we’ll get...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me Bronwyn Watters, deputy minister of Justice. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize in the gallery today two professors of social work from Alta, Norway. Jan Erik Hendrikson and Nina Hermanson are here with us today. These individuals work with the indigenous Saami people in Norway and are travelling to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut hoping to meet aboriginal groups and leaders to gain further understanding of the social services. They are accompanied by Dawn McInnes, manager of NWT victims’ services with the Department of Justice. Welcome. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This particular subject, the two detachments that we’ve committed and we continue to commit ourselves to as the GNWT, we provide policing already to Wrigley and Gameti, policing out of Simpson. To deal with Wrigley and Gameti is based out of Yellowknife, working closely with Behchoko detachment.

When it comes to a detachment, of course it’s a federal responsibility. At the same time I did address that with two federal Ministers last week -- Minister of Justice and Minister of Public Safety -- the importance and how critical it is to have these two detachments as they’ve...

We’re talking about programming that will go into further business planning detail. I can provide more detailed information at that point, but at the same time, just for the record, the stats that we have, as far as my knowledge, there hasn’t been any three individuals in a cell, from the stats that we have in front of us. Also, there are talks of overcrowding. I did state that there is space available, but definitely we don’t want to fill it with individuals, but we want to take individuals out on the land more.

Again, I’d like to refer to the Sahtu and the successful pilot project that we’ve...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The new initiative on getting tough on crime has been talked about at the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers meeting as well. So we are closely monitoring the progress and we do have the capacity at this moment, but definitely this is an ongoing discussion that we will be having with the federal government.

At the same time, we’re really focusing on the preventative measures, as well, because it was said yesterday that we would try and prevent people from going to prisons or institutions. So those are the areas that we are continually focusing and monitoring, the...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.