Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will deliver the budget address on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 1, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020, be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is a good-news story that there is excess capacity at the youth facility following changes under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. There indeed is extra capacity there. Hopefully, it stays that way. It can't be repurposed for adults, though. The Youth Criminal Justice Act has limitations on who can be present and limitations that prevent youth from intermingling with adults, individuals who might be on remand or in any form of custody. That makes it challenging to potentially have a youth person at the facility with any sort of adult. If there is a consistent way or consistent availability of...

RCMP's detachment cells are simply not designed for any sort of a stay past a very short day, two days at most, nor is it the role of the RCMP to act as a custodian for someone who is on remand. They are not corrections officers. That is not their primary function. Cells in the RCMP detachment don't often come with the kinds of frankly still fairly limited amenities that one would see within a corrections facility. They have the ability to turn down the lights, but the lights are on. There are no windows.

My understanding is that, when faced with a situation like this, the RCMP do their best to...

Again, the short answer is yes. I'm more than prepared to make that commitment. So, in addition to the fact that there is an effort to have some general media engagement this coming Friday about how a budget process unfolds, in addition to that, we're already working on having a bit more of a social media strategy to introduce people to the different parts of a budget and to the different processes. There has been some information already going out on social media to that regard. We are also actively, right now, working with stakeholder organizations across the Northwest Territories, in order...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 1, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020 be read for the third time, and, Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 1, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is the same question that I had asked when this came to light, to my attention. As I have said, I have looked into the nature of the four appearances. There were four appearances, and my understanding is that it was challenging to coordinate a flight down to Fort Smith because this individual had to appear back in court. Now, there are, no doubt, ways to avoid that. I think there are going to be, hopefully, ways to avoid that in the future, whether it is through encouraging and improving video appearances and access to video appearances, whether it is by encouraging the various parties...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the last few years, there has been an awareness that women need to have alternatives available to them if they can't be transported to Fort Smith. In the last few years, part of the facility at the North Slave was designated to have four spots for women, specifically. Indeed, in December of this past 2019, those four spots were full, and, therefore, a woman was not able to stay there. Usually, she would then be transported to Fort Smith during remand. Unfortunately, on this occasion, despite efforts between the RCMP and corrections, that wasn't possible. There were...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an occasion where I'm tempted to simply say, "Yes," and sit down, but perhaps I'll elaborate. I'll elaborate very briefly, only in that this is a conversation that we've already been having in the Department of Finance, recognizing that what the finance department does can sometimes seem unnecessarily opaque, and it doesn't need to be that way. In my past life, a lot of what I often did was translate things from legalese into good public communication, and it is my hope to bring some of that to what happens in our Department of Finance so that we can all better...