Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. With me I have Ms. Bronwyn Watters, my deputy minister of Justice; and also Kim Schofield, director of finance. Mahsi.

I am pleased to present the Department of Justice main estimates for the fiscal year 2010-2011.

The main estimates propose an operations and maintenance budget of $97.992 million, an increase of 5 percent over the 2009-2010 Main Estimates. This consists primarily of forced growth increases such as collective bargaining and strategic initiatives in policing, services for families and community justice.

This department’s mandate is to administer justice, including corrections and policing in the Northwest Territories. We support the Assembly’s vision of strong individuals, families and communities...

I think the Member touched on it; parental involvement and community involvement. It has to be monitored at the community level as well. The school can only do so much. The education council can only do so much as well. As a department, we can do what we can to make a very successful program. So there are all these partners actively involved, Mr. Speaker, but we do have ongoing... We are currently discussing what the Member is alluding to, such as a Mentorship Program where elders could be involved. So those are the initial discussions we are having to date and the outcome will be this summer...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with this particular area, it has been our intention that we need to have a thorough review of the community justice programming. We do have coordinators in place, not in every community. Some communities don’t have it, but at the same time there are some communities that are performing really well with the Justice department with the court services. I think there are nine without coordinators. Mr. Chair, we continuously have discussions with… Shirley Kemeys-Jones is the one in charge as the director and in constant contact and dialogue with the community to make...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Through the new initiative, we’ve had several meetings on the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and they’ve made some recommendations to our department and we’ve implemented those particular initiatives. Although it may be small, it’s a start. We provide funding to each of the school education councils, so they can deal with enrolment issues, enrolment challenges. Not only that, Mr. Speaker, we’ve provided a laptop to the grade 12 students and now we’re looking towards next year of providing possibly to grade 11 students and other initiatives along the way that will...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. When this was brought up at the standing committee, we did share with them that we are working on a children’s lawyer. So it would be like an advocate for children in the Northwest Territories. So those are the areas that we’ve been talking about. I guess the children’s lawyer will give the children a voice in legal proceedings that certainly affects them and by also protecting their rights. So I think it’s similar to what Ms. Bisaro is referring to, maybe a different title, but that piece of work we’ve been focusing on and we’re making progress in this area. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is a very special day for our Territory as we celebrate Northwest Territories Day at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Throughout the day there will be events and activities at venues like Canada’s Northern House to promote the people and culture of our Territory. In the evening our northern performers will take centre stages at B.C. Place in the heart of downtown Vancouver. This will be the main event of the Northwest Territories Day Victory Celebration. During this event, the Northwest Territories Performing Collective will reveal, through traditional...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, indeed, I will advise the Member of our progress to date on this particular piece of work that’s important to all communities. So I will keep the Members informed of our progress to date on my meetings with the new commanding officer that’s coming on stream February 23rd, and we will definitely discuss this going forward. Mahsi.

Yes, that is part of the discussion that we’ve continuously had with the RCMP “G” Division and also the commanding officer. I think it’s important to realize the cultural aspect of it and the size of the community. Orientation to the community plays a big factor. So, Mr. Speaker, this has been on the table with our meeting with “G” Division and then we will continue to discuss that, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize members from the NWTTA: President Dave Reid and also Gayla Meredith, coordinator of member services.