R.J. Simpson

Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Department of Justice Corrections Service Annual Report 20212022. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And as part of the review, there will be discussions with youth. And as I said, we are looking at how we can amend this model going forward. And if there are, you know, recommendations that we do some of the things that the Member is talking about, then we can definitely explore that. However, I don't want to just say youth will have money to pursue different programs because they're students; they don't necessarily have the time; they don't necessarily have the expertise, the connections to, you know, develop and roll out programs. So to just give students money...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So I've had a number of conversations with the Minister of health about this program. Our officials have been meeting with each other, and we both have met with the education bodies. And what the result of all of those meetings are is a review. We've expedited a review of the program. We are looking at making some changes this year to address some of the issues that have been identified and coming up with a new model, hope to be implemented in the upcoming school year. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So as this committee has not even been struck yet, we don't have a process for setting agendas. But I would love to hear from youth and know what they want to talk about. I don't want to tell them what they're going to talk about; I'd like to hear from them. We will be putting forward items obviously, but I would love it if the youth would put forward some agenda items themselves. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, November 1st, 2022, I will present Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents: Northwest Territories Law Foundation 39th Annual Report for the Period Ending June 30, 2021; and, Territorial Police Service Agreement RCMP Annual Report 20212022. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The next steps would be ensuring that the information provided through the public engagement is analyzed. That will then be used to develop a legislative proposal and then the process that follows is that legislative proposal goes to standing committee, comes to Cabinet, the bill is drafted, and hopefully introduced in the winter sitting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And that's correct, between June 16th and July 25th of this year, the Department of Justice held public engagement. So the engagement consisted of an unanimous online survey that asked residents a number of questions related to missing persons legislation. The department also sent letters directly to Indigenous governments, mayors, the RCMP, and various other partners and stakeholders to invite them to participate in the survey. We received 81 responses. Most questions or most had a strong consensus. While many residents agreed that law enforcement should be able to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Department of Justice attends a number of different federal, territorial, and provincial meetings at various levels. So I've recently attended a meeting with the ministers for public safety and ministers of justice across Canada, and these are the types of issues that we discussed, and I will say what the issues that are being raised here are also being raised across Canada. So this is not a territory issue alone.

There is work in different jurisdictions to look at policing and how police services could be improved. There's been recent talk about Alberta moving...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and this speaks to the Member's last question as well. Most of the people who are in the correctional system in the Northwest Territories are there on remand, meaning they have not yet been sentenced.

In the 2010s, there were a number of Supreme Court of Canada cases that spoke to bail and, you know, what was needed in order to detain someone versus to release them. The Government of Canada, in 2019, codified some of that language or those decisions. And now the release of accused persons is the cardinal rule and detention is an exception. So the Criminal Code of Canada...