Louis Sebert

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, we are waiting for an evaluation of the A New Day Program, as I have mentioned previously, and I'm not certain of the exact amount of funds that we may have available. So I will look into that matter and get back to the Member opposite. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have created a working group that is guiding the development of the Open Government Policy and part of this work, of course, will be consulting with residents and we will be undertaking to do that in the early part of the next year.

Mr. Speaker, the department absolutely supports the government's mandate to take action on the crisis of family and community violence. This includes the commitment made to continue the support for a healing program for men who use violence in intimate relationships such as the A New Day program.

There is no question that this program is needed and has helped individuals. We think that this program holds tremendous potential to help address the crisis of family violence in our territory. That is why the government has piloted the program since 2012 and why we are investing in an independent...

Mr. Speaker, as I had mentioned in the House earlier, we are having a report prepared, which we are eagerly awaiting. It is a comprehensive and rather expensive report. I haven't seen the report, I haven't seen even the early draft of it, but I'm sure it will have options. It may be that this type of program should be expanded, but we're waiting for the report to determine that.

Mr. Speaker, A New Day program is a community-based pilot program that takes place outside of the jail system. Certainly people currently in custody, who will ultimately of course be released, may be encouraged to take the full A New Day program once they are released.

Certainly, Mr. Speaker, we are committed to this type of program. But we are, again, waiting for the evaluation of the A New Day Program and we are very much looking forward to receiving that report.

As I said, we should be receiving it shortly. Again, we are committed to the type of program. We are very much looking forward to this evaluation, as we recognize that this is a very important issue within the Northwest Territories. So as soon as we get the report and have reviewed it in Cabinet, we will share it with the Members opposite. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, Mr. Speaker, we are waiting for the evaluation of the program. Certainly we recognize the concerns expressed about there being a gap, and we will try to address that matter once we have had a full review of the report.

Mr. Speaker, of course this is a priority under the mandate of this government and I think all Members will recall we had an interesting discussion on this very issue at the Caucus retreat in August. I expect to have a legislative proposal to committee on the establishment of the ombudsman in the first half of 2017.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members of this Committee feel that standing committees should strive to operate in a transparent manner consistent with the seven core principles for public engagement described above, and the Guiding Principles and Process Conventions for consensus government adopted by the Members of the 18th Assembly. The recent adoption of these Principles and Conventions has had an impact on some of the work that this Committee was tasked with in the original referral motion. A recent addition to these Principles states: “The business of consensus government should be carried out...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation and Northwest Territories Power Corporation 2016 Annual Report," "Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation and Northwest Territories Power Corporation 2016-2017 Corporate Plan," and "Northwest Territories Coroner Service 2015 Annual Report." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.