Louis Sebert

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a complex issue; of course, I certainly would want to discuss this with my colleagues. My understanding was that, in the last year, there were approximately $83 million of royalties obtained from the mining industry in the Northwest Territories; however, there is not an individual breakdown from individual mining companies. I think in the past they have resisted that for the reason that they didn't want to be sharing that kind of information with competitors, because royalty regimes and rates are based often on gross production or profits. Traditionally, in the...

Yes. Many of us, along with staff, did have the opportunity of going to Guthrie House, and I think we were all impressed by what we saw and heard there. Two site visits to the Guthrie Therapeutic Community in Nanaimo, British Columbia, have been conducted. We met staff and inmates, and, as I say, I think we were all impressed from what we heard from both staff and inmates. So, the corrections service has established a committee to examine the feasibility of implementing a therapeutic-community model for addictions in the South Slave, South Mackenzie Correctional Centre, so we are researching...

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no doubt that many of those who do end up incarcerated do have issues with trauma and addictions. I can advise that Corrections staff have attended training and workshops on trauma-informed practices to assist them in working with inmates who have experienced trauma, which would be a pretty high percentage of those who are incarcerated.

I can also advise that, along with facility psychologists, Corrections has an addictions counsellor on staff at South Mackenzie Correctional Centre, and traditional counsellors and liaison officers are on staff at both SMCC...

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...

Here are the Fort Smith residents who are with us today and who will be presented with the Governor General of Canada’s Corrections Exemplary Service Medal: Toko James MacDonald, John Barry Bernhardt, Warren Gillis, Stella Walterhouse, Andrea Steed, Doreen Schaefer. I thank you for being here and look forward to seeing you when you receive this honour this evening. Thank you.

Yes, I believe the Member opposite, Mr. Speaker, is referring to the unit within the RCMP that will be looking at historical cases. I can advise that we'll be working closely with the RCMP with respect to this matter. I meet with a commanding officer, Mr. Zettler, quarterly. This is an issue that I would certainly raise with him. Thank you.

As Members will recall, this program has been under new management since June of last year. I understand that the program is working quite successfully. There have been quite a few men who have indicated interest in the program, so there was a seamless delivery of the program as the new management took over last year, or rather, July.

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...