Louis Sebert

I don't think I could make that kind of commitment at this time because the royalty regimes are an important part of our revenues. As I say, we do know what the gross amount is. The question is: how much we are getting from each individual mine? As I say, in the past, mines both here and I think in most other jurisdictions have not been willing to share that information. Some of the information can be obtained through other countries, I see, by looking at the overall profits of the parent companies, but I don't think the mines in the Northwest Territories, that are generally subsidiaries of...

Yes, as I mentioned earlier, I think we were both very impressed with both staff and the inmates at the Guthrie House, and I can advise that the department is currently in the final stages of curriculum development for the pre-treatment healing addictions programs to be facilitated out of SMCC. So, we went down to Nanaimo, we listened and learned, and we are making progress in this important matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can advise that psychologists are on staff at North Slave Correctional Complex and the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre providing psychological services to inmates. At the Fort Smith Correctional Complex, on-call psychological services are available. Fort Smith Correctional Centre is entering into a recruitment process for a full-time counsellor.

Corrections psychological services are also made available to those on probation on an as-needed basis, and I can advise also that, along with the facility psychologists I have referenced previously, Corrections has an addictions counsellor on...

Yes, the Member opposite is quite correct. There were concerns raised by the staff. There were a number of concerns, including staffing and safety at the facility. I can assure you that these concerns are important to the staff and that safety is paramount among those concerns.

Management at the North Slave Correctional Centre has been conducting regular occupational health and safety meetings and joint consultation meetings with the staff. In addition, they have met with the union or the workers about these same concerns. Stemming and arising from these meetings, several things have been done...

Within all of our facilities, we have a number of programming opportunities available to inmates. That's true both here and in the facilities outside Yellowknife. They are constantly looking at and evaluating programs and rolling out new ones. They have recently enhanced the programs to deal with those inmates that have short sentences. They are set up on a modular basis so they can be continued outside of the facility.

To give you some idea of some of the programs that we are offering, they are the following: high school exam preparation, trades exam preparation, assistance with pursuing and...

Mr. Speaker, our mandate has outlined direct actions to improve the lives of Northerners. For the Department of Justice, this includes a commitment to offer programming that meets the rehabilitative needs of inmates. An integral part of the work that the Department of Justice does requires that dedicated individuals in our corrections service constantly learn and adapt to the needs and best practices for helping inmates in our system. These professionals are tasked with providing the safe and secure custody of inmates and supporting their successful reintegration upon release.

This is not easy...

As I mentioned, there was a seamless delivery of the program as the new management took over, but that doesn't mean that we haven't been looking at improvements, so here are some of the improvements we are contemplating: we want to make the program more flexible so that men will be able to join the group as soon as they are ready and get back into the program should they drop out. The program is more connected to community programs, such as counselling, victim services; an enhanced screening and referral process ensures continuity of service for men who are not ready to join a group so they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The commission, of course, is an individual commission and does not have any employees within or from any of the territories. The department and this government does realize that violence against Indigenous women is a national crisis. This has been borne out by what we have heard from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Inquiry.

We are assisting the GNWT with a dedicated family information liaison unit that is a research team to help the victims find relevant documents from across the country. We are assisting in that way. We are not part of the staff of the commission...

Yes, the member is correct that access to the outdoor recreation has been restricted since the incident of our inmate escape in August of 2016. In the interim, the traditional liaison counsellor has been continuing programming in the indoor culture room and areas within the facility designated for this purpose.

As I previously mentioned in this House, there were some complications in the procurement process that required the department to look at alternatives. The problem was that the bids came in at a figure far in excess of what we were expecting, so I can't speak publicly about the security...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were a number of concerns raised in the letters which we received in October. They covered quite a range of topics, including programming available, access to outdoor recreation areas, use of space within the facility, access to a law library, cost of phone calls, and staffing issues.

I want to assure this House that these concerns have been taken seriously. Within each of our correctional facilities, there is a process in place for addressing inmate concerns when the management of the facility meets with the inmate advisory committee on a monthly basis...