Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Bromley has no further questions. Page 9-27, Justice, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary, $11.803 million.
Agreed.
Page 9-28, Justice, information item, court services, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 9-31, Justice, activity summary, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.169 million. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions have to do with the increased claims growth of WSCC claims for injured workers which, I believe, corrections is causing some quite alarming statistics, especially in the last two years. Can the Minister indicate what provisions we’re using or doing as a department to reduce the amount of claims growth in this area?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Department of Justice was one of the three highest on claims history over the last couple of years. I will say, for the record, that the department is committed to workplace health and safety. In fact, over the last year we had dedicated a senior management position to do some analysis and put some plans in place within the department so that we can see a real reduction in claims in the Department of Justice. In particular, in our facilities where we’re seeing the incidents occur. Since 2010 we have seen a 36 percent reduction in the number of Justice WSCC claims as a percentage of all GNWT claims has been achieved. Reductions in WSCC late filing penalty numbers and claims in the number of claims as a percentage of all GNWT claims were realized for 2011.
In short, we are seeing some significant reductions in the Department of Justice in this area. We would like to get those even lower and we are going to continue to do the work. We’re going to continue to work with corrections officers and corrections staff to help identify areas where people are getting injured and eliminating those opportunities for injury, if you will. Significant improvement in this area.
I’m looking forward to seeing the results and statistics to validate the significant improvement that we’re hearing from the Minister. We’ll find out at year-end whether or not that is entirely accurate. What I heard from the Minister today is that we’ve got plans in place. It sounds like they’ve hired a personnel officer to oversee some of the changes that are imminent in that department. Yet I didn’t hear about any new safety program initiatives to make the workplace safer. Can the Minister elaborate what safety programs the department is involved with to make the workplace a safer place?
As I indicated, we have pulled off a director position to actually do some analysis and start working with corrections to identify means by which we can help the people be more aware of workplace injury, how people can be more aware of ways to avoid workplace injury. The WSCC has a number of courses and staff within the facilities, and the government as a whole have been taking advantage of these courses. We’ve done some worksite assessments on the sites themselves to see if there’s anything about the sites themselves that are causing or leading more people to be more prone to injury, and eliminating some of those where possible. I can go to the deputy minister for a few more specifics.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Haener.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As you can appreciate, corrections is a difficult environment in which people work. There can be, at times, altercations between staff and inmates. On an ongoing basis we ensure that corrections officers and staff working in the facility have training to ensure they can function in as safe a manner as possible. That includes de-escalation techniques, it includes being able to engage with inmates in an effective manner and in a safe manner. We also have a number of newer things that we are engaged in. The Minister has mentioned some of them. We ensure that staff have appropriate orientations and understand safety procedures in the facility. We make sure that we’re up to date on items like fire drills, fire safety and those kinds of standard processes.
We have made sure that all of the occupational health and safety committees are active and that staff are aware of what’s taking place in those committees. The information is disseminated to staff. We also are making sure we are well aligned with the Safe Advantage Program. We are considering other processes that include looking at the trends we have around injuries and accidents in our workplaces, and working with WSCC to put into place further training and programs to reduce those accidents. If we’re seeing a high frequency of accidents, for example, related to falls in the workplace or sprains, then we would bring the WSCC in to help deliver training to staff on those issues. As well, we would be very focused with the particular staff who have had those injuries to work with them one on one to determine what we can do to reduce recurrence of those types of incidents.
Thank you, Ms. Haener. Mr. Dolynny.
I appreciate the deputy minister’s detail on that. One of my last questions here is, these trends that we’re seeing in injury, is this across the board in our corrections facilities or are we seeing certain corrections facilities with higher trends in injuries?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Abernethy.
The numbers might suggest that North Slave Correctional Facility is higher, but it’s also the largest number of staff. We don’t have the detail broken out whether, trending-wise, one facility’s got higher incidents than others, but we will look and see what we can pull out to see if we can actually pull out that data. I will say that most of the injuries in our facilities are under the categories of sprain, strain and tears.
No further questions but I would like to report progress.
---Carried
Good evening, colleagues. Can I have the report of Committee of the Whole, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. A motion is on the floor. Do we have a seconder? The seconder is Mr. Beaulieu.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, there will be a meeting of the Priorities and Planning committee at adjournment today.
Orders of the day for Thursday, March 7, 2013, 1:30 p.m.:
Prayer
Ministers’ Statements
Members’ Statements
Reports of Standing and Special Committees
Returns to Oral Questions
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Acknowledgements
Oral Questions
Written Questions
Returns to Written Questions
Replies to Opening Address
Petitions
Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills
Tabling of Documents
Notices of Motion
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills
Motions
First Reading of Bills
Second Reading of Bills
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014
Bill 1, Tlicho Statutes Amendment Act
Report of Committee of the Whole
Third Reading of Bills
Orders of the Day
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Thursday, March 7th, at 1:30 p.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 6:03 p.m.
