Steve Norn

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I want to acknowledge the mover and seconder of this motion. These motions, you can see a lot of motions that come through. Some of them, they take guts to come forward and do it, and courage. I think this is one of those motions. I commend my colleagues for bringing forth this motion. Going back, like I said, a lot of us covered this in our Member's statements. Yes, we have all these nice words, we have all these nice well-worded documents, but at the heart of it all is actions. I am hoping that all of us, all my colleagues, work really hard and back up our words with...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Just listening to some of the comments of some of my colleagues, that feeling of exclusion, I could go on and on about my numerous encounters, those feelings that I have had throughout my working career and childhood. I will share you one of my first encounters.

Mr. Speaker, when I was about seven or eight years old, I visited relatives in Pine Point when it used to exist. My great-great-grandparents were busy with my relatives, and I was instructed to go to the nearby playground. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but I was so excited to jump on the monkey bars...

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Justice at this time. Marsi cho, Madam Chair.

Thank you for that. That's good to know. Like any other agreement, it sounds like there is a contract involved, probably a tripartite. What is the commitment from the GNWT and the other parties? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Thank you again for that response. I will just leave this with a comment. In our committees, we say our morning prayers and stuff. I always say we should say prayers for people, our staff, and our public servants who put themselves in harm's way. This is one of them. I have done it myself. It's a dangerous job, and people just do not realize corrections does not stop. It's a 24/7 operation. You always have to be alert. You always have to be in it all the time. Like I said, like my colleague from Thebacha said, you have to look out for each other and work as a team...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking at page 279, one thing I had a question about is this CNRTP, the Corrections Northern Recruitment Training Program. From what I've heard so far, it's been a pretty good program to keep staffing levels up in that area. My question for the Minister is: where is this training program primarily held? Is it just in Yellowknife, or is it held in places like Inuvik or Fort Smith or Hay River? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response. It's just good to hear some of the proactive stuff we need, too. A lot of our Justice initiatives are, I want to say, kneejerk, but a lot of it is reactive. It's good to see some of the proactive projects like this happen with the department. I did have one other question here, too, just moving on to this other line item, victims assistance support projects. Can the Minister just briefly describe what that line item covers? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that answer. I kind of was going in this direction. I know that a lot of community justice committees and boards are really tough to staff. I would just ask the Minister: are there a lot of vacancies in the communities that we just mentioned? Thank you.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 286-19(2), Main Estimates 2021-2022, Department of Justice. Marsi cho.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker, colleagues. My constituent I spoke with recently, Ms. Laney Beaulieu of Deninu Kue, reached out to me in light of recent events in one of our communities. She's currently a student at the Western University in Ontario, and she pointed out a really powerful quote to me from Ibram X. Kendi, an American author and an anti-racist activist. "A policy is either actively trying to minimize the gap in the quality of life between marginalized people and the general public, or is it actively contributing to these disparities." This is a powerful statement, and I'm hoping that it...