Julie Green

Yellowknife Centre

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to discuss some process issues with this bill. As you may know, we received the report on this act, this world-class, most-significant bill since the Devolution Act, yesterday, still warm from the photocopier, about two inches thick, and we who were not on the committee had no time or opportunity to go through it fully engaged, obviously, in what's happening here.

For people like me who are not part of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, I was at a real disadvantage to appreciate the complexity of the motions that were being proposed...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In my statement today I spoke about the quality improvement plan for Child and Family Services that was tabled earlier this week. As I mentioned, the plan has many strengths, but I do have some concerns. The Minister has often said that too many priorities result in no priorities at all. Can the Minister say why he then endorsed 70 priorities in this plan? Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this a good time to do opening comments on the bill, or wait until the witnesses are here?

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Security assessment tools are standard practice in correctional facilities, and the concern that this particular recommendation addresses is that the assessment tool be particularly inclusive of the realities of Indigenous inmates, that, particularly, corrections staff look for security assessment tools that are culturally more appropriate than a standard tool that may be developed and used on a Caucasian population. We recognize that there are different tools, and we are encouraging with this motion that corrections finds and tries tools that may be more appropriate to...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The background to this motion is that we wanted to expand the kind of information that was taken in for assessments so that it was not just the security risk that the inmate posed to the facility and the staff but also what were their own capacities and limitations. Gladue, for example, is the set of factors that courts take into account in sentencing inmates, that recognizes that they may have disabilities and they may have factors in their lives that have caused them trauma and difficulty which have really formed their character and need to be taken into account, and so...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It has been a real journey with the Corrections Act. The committee was a little dismayed, I think it is fair to say, by the bill in its original form, and we didn't find that there was a huge amount of public interest in it when we did our public hearings, but we really benefited from the expert advice that I was able to round up through the BC Civil Liberties Association; Mary Campbell, who is the former Director General of Corrections for Canada; the Canadian Bar Association NWT Chapter; Lydia Bardak, who, as you may know, was the ED of the John Howard Society for many...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Friday, August 23, 2019, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that this Legislative Assembly adopt the Code of Conduct for Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories identified as Tabled Document 509-18(3). Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for the passion that he brings to this issue. Lastly, I want to follow up the statement that I made in the winter about the need for a child and youth advocate. The Minister indicated that his staff could update research on the idea, and I am wondering what progress he can report on this commitment.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 88)

Thanks to the Minister for his response. A second concern I have is about the staff time, the time that is that staff will be spending on compliance processes versus time they will spend with their eyes on their clients. I can understand that this approach is somewhat a reaction to the report from the Office of the Auditor General and to step up compliance, but can the Minister assure us that, despite the focus on process, time with clients will actually improve?