Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to provide an update on our new approach to recruit and training corrections officers and youth officers to work in our facilities.
In the past, we have had challenges with recruiting Northerners for these specialized jobs. Not just anyone can work as a corrections officer or in a correctional centre. These jobs take many skills and the right attitude. The skills required are not easy to come by in the North, and we need to make sure that people have the skills and training they need to qualify for these jobs. Situations can escalate within seconds and staff need to be able to react quickly and appropriately.
We wanted Northerners to qualify for these jobs. That’s especially true because our approach to corrections is much different than the approaches that are common in other parts of Canada. Our focus is on rehabilitation and community reintegration and we use a direct supervision model that has our staff and offenders working closely together.
We need people who have the same approach, people who care about their communities, people who want to help inmates deal with the issues that have been leading them to crime. We can’t train people to care about their communities. We can train people who already care about their communities to be good corrections staff. This is part of the Government of the Northwest Territories’ work to improve human resource management through training, career planning and encouraging
employee innovation. Our own Justice Northern Workforce Development Plan depends on this client-focused, service-oriented model.
Our northern solution is a recruitment program which identifies Northerners with the right aptitude and attitude and then provides them with a six-week training program. It was developed by Northerners and graduates are qualified to start work at any of our correctional centres right away. So far, 20 people have graduated. That’s 20 northern residents who qualified right away to work in our corrections system or in any other security-type job in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, the next program will start this April with concurrent training programs in Yellowknife and Fort Smith. These programs are delivered in-house by qualified instructors. We need people with all sorts of backgrounds to work in corrections. Our diversity is our strength. We hire people with training in social work, education, nursing, recreation, counselling, management and law enforcement. Sometimes people don’t realize how many opportunities they have. We think this training program will help.
Our corrections service is working hard to recruit and retain northern staff to be as responsible as we can be to the needs of northern offenders. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
