Debates of June 2, 2006 (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m committed to finding innovative enforcement tools to make our communities and our neighbourhoods safer. We all know that crack houses unfairly can take a community area hostage by putting good citizens in jeopardy in horrible ways that I’ve talked about in my Member’s statement. I brought forward a copy of the Safe Communities and Neighbourhood Act to the Justice Minister and I will be tabling a copy later today. So my question to the Minister of Justice is, has he had a chance to look at the act and open up some type of dialogue between his provincial counterparts on the usage of this type of act in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Bell.

Return To Question 33-15(5): Consideration For Safe Communities Legislation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the information from the Member and his support and advocacy for having us look at new and innovative ways to ensure community safety. This is something that we’ve been pursuing for quite some time. We have looked at other jurisdictions, looked at similar models. There are about four Canadian provinces, three Canadian provinces and one territory right now, with similar legislation and we have been in discussion with these provinces and territories to understand how effective this legislation and the enforcement of it has been. So we are analyzing models. This is something I think I look forward to having further discussions with Members about, but certainly there is some validity to continuing to challenge ourselves to find new and effective ways to make our communities safe. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 33-15(5): Consideration For Safe Communities Legislation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Justice Minister, for that answer. Mr. Speaker, this is truly an important issue to me and it is an important issue to the citizens in Yellowknife Centre and, to no surprise, I’m sure the whole Northwest Territories. So I should put the Justice Minister on notice that I will truly be relentlessly pursuing this issue for the next several months to ensure that we will be bringing forward a safe neighbourhood enforcement tool to our enforcement people. So, therefore, would the Minister be willing to look at this act, look at a way of adopting this type of act and bringing it forward as a discussion paper sometime in the fall so Members can look at doing something in a timely way within our Territories so we can get the enforcement people the right enforcement tools to help our streets be safe? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Further Return To Question 33-15(5): Consideration For Safe Communities Legislation

Mr. Speaker, I’ll certainly come forward in that time frame for a discussion with committee. I think we need to understand what the best options for us are. In other jurisdictions I think there are new offices that are created that are really outside the work that the RCMP are doing and we have to have a discussion around what the best model for the Northwest Territories would be. I think this community safety approach is something that I’m supportive of, but I want to understand the cost benefit. You have to ask yourself if we’d be better served to put the resources into the RCMP to help them do their job. I don’t know the answer to that question, Mr. Speaker, but it’s one that I want to pursue, discuss, analyze, and I’ll certainly be back to committee to look at this and other options. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.