Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to follow up on my earlier questions with the Minister of Justice, if I may. I just want to start by noting that six months ago in this House, when we had our first conversation in the House about the topic of mental health courts and so on, I did in fact ask the Minister at that time when we could see recommendations coming forward that we could actually get going on the ground. The Minister at that time did respond that: “I hope to have that to the Members shortly after Christmas” – this was December 14th – “as far as when the actual recommendations come out. We might need a bit more time.” So again, that’s the December 14th Hansard. I wonder if the Minister agrees that he did make some commitments on the timing that were a little more progressive than what we heard earlier today.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s in Hansard; it must be true. I am committed to getting this done. I do see it’s taken a little longer than anticipated. It has taken a bit longer to get a work plan done. We are still doing the research and analysis. I have committed to getting the work plan to the Members by the end of August. From there we plan to complete the feasibility study so that we can have an options paper in front of Members before the end of this fiscal year, so that we can actually make a decision on what type of model we’re going to use. There are a number out there. We need to make sure we do an in-depth analysis on each of them to make sure that whatever we’re proposing, whatever we’re talking about, whatever we’re deciding on in the Legislature is in the best interest of all the people of the Northwest Territories.
Again, the Minister is proposing August. He knows we don’t get together until September and that’s business plans, which means this won’t be in the 2013-2014 budget. Now we’re talking 2014-2015. I guess my response to that is a request to the Minister that he commit right now to having a program in place, proposed, in the draft budgets, the business plan that we review in September.
I don’t believe we’ll be ready to make that kind of decision. We need to pull the information together, we need to work with Members to do an analysis of the different types of options that are out there, and we together have to get together to select one. We have to pick one that is going to work in the best interest of the people of the Northwest Territories. From there we are going to have to go into a whole design model and design a model that actually works. There are so many things that have to fall into place.
With respect to the type of supports individuals may be given through the courts, we need to make sure that any alcohol and drug training, wellness training, will meet the standards of the court. There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done, and like I said, we need to get it right as opposed to right now. I am committed to bringing back an item for decision to all of the Members by the end of this fiscal year, hopefully early in the winter, and from there we’ll make some decisions on what it’s going to look like in the future.
The Minister is not hearing this side of the House. We are about prevention. I think three years is unreasonable. We have passed the motion in the 16th Assembly. This government has already spoken repeatedly from this side of the House. That is a totally unacceptable time frame and does not match with the crime bill either, which is already, according to the Minister, partly being implemented here. We are suffering those consequences. Jurisdictions across the country, indeed across North America, have put in mental health courts. There’s nothing new about this. This is proven. This has often been put in place with little to no extra dollars. We have the biggest social problems in the country and we want action on this now. Does the Minister agree that in fact mental health courts fit the needs of the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territories to a T?
I believe that I’ve been fairly consistent, in my time as a Minister and before I was a Minister, that prevention is important. My colleague, the Minister of Health and Social Services, spoke in favour of prevention significantly and I have as well. To that end, we are working on an Anti-Poverty Strategy that’s going to help us deal with the root causes of crime. These are all prevention. When it comes to the courts, I acknowledge full well that the courts are an important tool. Whether it’s an addictions court, a mental health court or whether it’s a wellness court. What I’m telling you right now is we don’t know which model is the most appropriate for the Northwest Territories. We’re doing that analysis. We’ll get that analysis done. Once we pull that information together, we’ll share it with our colleagues on both sides of the House so that everybody can see it and we can make an informed decision on which model works best for the people of the Northwest Territories.
I understand it’s taking long, but there are a lot of things happening in this government that we have to get done. This is just one of them. We will get it done. We will have it in place for the people of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I seem to detect a shifting of responsibility onto communities and a possible shrinking from responsibilities at the territorial level. I hope that’s not true. Does the Minister agree that this is indeed partly a community problem, but that the territorial government has a real responsibility to be in place providing programs on this issue? Mahsi.
I’m not sure how I suggested we’re downloading this responsibility. When it comes to things like anti-poverty, we’re all working together to find a solution that’s in the best interests of the people of the Northwest Territories.
The same is true with the courts. We know that we have a role to provide courts in the Northwest Territories. This is an option that we’re excited by, but we want to make sure we get it right. We are going to work with our colleagues on both sides of the House and experts who exist out there. The judges certainly want to have some say into what this looks like with respect to where they’re going to divert people to, so that it meets the standards that they expect. There’s a lot of work that needs to get done. We want to get it done, we want to get it right, and we want to get it done as quickly as we can, that is reasonable given the budgets and timelines that we have available to us. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
