Debates of May 27, 2004 (day 14)

Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 156-15(3): Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, that is certainly something that has crossed my mind. I have told Mr. Zoe that I believe he is a very good Minister in carrying out his job. He has other difficulties to deal with and I will be there to provide all of the support I can to help him overcome those difficulties. If it means that he is going to be away, if it came to that, then certainly I would support that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier and it’s with regard to the statement made by Mr. Zoe. I have been listening to the answers being provided by the Premier and the questions being posed. I am a little confused about where we are here.

First of all, it’s highly regrettable that we have to spend this sort of time and energy addressing something that could have been dealt with in a more responsible manner by the Member in question. I just want to put that out there. The second thing is, for me, the whole discussion came about because of the fact that Mr. Zoe himself did not indicate anything in his statement about treatment or any kind of action. I didn’t hear that. In my private conversations with the Premier, it was my understanding that Mr. Zoe is not prepared to do that. If he was, I would not be asking any of the questions that I am today. So what is his understanding? For me, my problem is that Mr. Zoe has not taken responsibility for what he has done and he is not prepared to do any kind of treatment. Could the Premier clarify what his understanding is of Mr. Zoe’s position? Thank you.

Mr. Premier.

Return To Question 157-15(3): Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, Mr. Zoe has indicated to me that he is prepared to take steps to ensure this will not happen. I have also indicated to Mr. Zoe that I will do whatever I can to support him. I think all of us feel that we want to resolve this issue. Exactly what that is, that’s something I have to say that is a personal matter with Mr. Zoe and I really urge Members to talk to him privately. I don‘t think Mr. Zoe wants to lay out exactly what he is planning to do in the House here. That is a private, personal matter. It’s not an easy one and, Mr. Speaker, I say to Members talk to Mr. Zoe and he will be able to tell you. It’s not my place to get into the details of something that is very personal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 157-15(3): Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that the Premier’s statement is very, very problematic. This is not a family of 17 brothers and two sisters. I understand there is a personal matter and a personal suffering here, but this assembly is a public body. We are talking about actions that were taken by a public person in a public forum in a very public event. North of 60 Idol had at least 200 people present and the Premier is not Mr. Zoe’s father, brother or uncle. He is the leader of this government. He is my leader. I wish Mr. Zoe wouldn’t be smiling. I am sorry; what’s going on here? It matters what a Member here does. Mr. Premier can be a personal friend to Mr. Zoe, but as the Premier, he has got to show more leadership and be prepared to do…So why is he insisting on doing this dance of “I hear your pain, do whatever you can and I am with you?" Where are his obligations to the public? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Premier.

Further Return To Question 157-15(3): Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, I am at a bit of a loss as to what it is the Member wants us to say. What is the magic word? Mr. Zoe has told me that he has taken steps to ensure that this does not happen again. The details of those steps are very personal to Mr. Zoe. If Members want to know more, then I encourage them to talk to Mr. Zoe, but I am comforted to take Mr. Zoe at his word that he is taking steps. If he does not follow through on that, then he knows what the consequences are. I have told the House earlier today what those are. All I can say, if you want to talk about this, which to me is a very personal thing, talk to Mr Zoe privately is my advice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 157-15(3): Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, the Premier should be totally ashamed of that answer. Mr. Speaker, we know the Premier of Alberta had to make a public apology and say he was seeking treatment when there was a problem like this. If this happened to any other Minister in any other government, that Minister would be at least suspended if not gone. If this happened to any other senior officials in this government and they said and did what Mr. Zoe did, that person would not have a job right now. I would certainly hope that. For the Premier to say this is a personal matter, why is it so difficult for him to say I support you, take time and in the meantime you are relieved of your responsibilities until you have dealt with it. Isn’t that the proper public action to take by a Premier who has worked so hard to be the leader of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow-up to the questions to the Premier with respect to the Member’s statement and the response of Mr. Zoe to this very serious matter, I would like to ask the Premier more questions.

As a preamble what I want to say is I don’t think we can negate the body language we are getting from Mr. Zoe in the House here, for which I also call the Premier responsible. I am not seeing a person one bit sorry or taking responsibility. I am seeing someone sitting over there shaking their head at me with a big attitude. That is not helping his case, might I say.

I would like to know if the Premier is aware of the nature of the comments Mr. Zoe made in this very public incident which took place at the Royal Canadian Legion. I concur with Ms. Lee. He can stand up and say this is a personal and private matter, but Mr. Zoe is the one who chose to make this a public matter when he decided to do what he did, and now all of a sudden we are being viewed as uncharitable about this. He was responsible for his actions. You are saying he is giving you his commitment? He gave you his commitment before. What happened to that commitment? Is the Premier aware of the nature of the comments that were made? Thank you.

Mr. Premier.

Return To Question 158-15(3): Nature Of The Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, I am aware of the nature of the comments. I am not aware of the exact wording of the comments. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 158-15(3): Nature Of The Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, without the exact wording, would the Premier share with the House what were the nature of the comments that Mr. Zoe made? Thank you.

Mr. Premier.

Further Return To Question 158-15(3): Nature Of The Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, the comments, as they were relayed to me, were comments that were found to be offensive. They were comments made against people who come from Newfoundland, and people were offended. They relayed that to the management. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 158-15(3): Nature Of The Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What does the Premier have to say to the people of the Northwest Territories who come here from other jurisdictions who are hardworking contributors to the northern society? What does he have to say to those people about whom these comments were made? Thank you.

Mr. Premier, Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 158-15(3): Nature Of The Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry that these comments were made. I have tremendous respect for all people, no matter where they have come from who live and work in the Northwest Territories, and without any hesitation at all I can say that I apologize to anyone who may be offended by things that are said by individuals in Cabinet, or individuals anywhere. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 158-15(3): Nature Of The Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, maybe the Premier could share with us his understanding of a Cabinet Minister’s responsibility as to when they are on duty, and when are they representing this government and the views of this government. Is this just during working hours, or what obligations does a Cabinet Minister have in terms of the things that come out of their mouths and the actions that they take in public? Thank you.

Mr. Premier, Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 158-15(3): Nature Of The Conduct Of Minister Zoe

Mr. Speaker, for all of us who take responsibility for public office we, whether we are MLAs or Cabinet Ministers or Premier, are on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I think during the last few days that lesson has certainly come home to all of us, that we do not have a period on any day where we can just sort of opt out into a private life. That doesn’t happen in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Minister of Justice, the Honourable Charles Dent. Mr. Speaker, I understand that some time ago the Tl'oondih Society had a program for inmates in the North. I wanted to ask the Minister, could he inform the House as to the program and give the House an indication in terms of how the program went with Tl'oondih Healing Society and the inmates from the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Tl'oondih lodge was used in conjunction with corrections. The goal was to run a program that would help offenders reintegrate back into the community through a program that was tied to the land, and the program started I believe in late March and ran for several weeks. The early reports that I have received are that the program was seen as very successful by both the inmates who went through the program and by the staff. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the honourable Minister. I applaud the government for taking an initiative like this to have bush camps out on the land, and run by aboriginal groups or communities. The Tl'oondih Healing Society and staff have made this a successful program. Can the Minister inform the House if a report is going to come out of his department in terms of other specifics we are going to ask about the Tl'oondih Healing Society and the Justice department program? Thank you.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure when we expect the final report. The Tl'oondih Wellness Society is working on that report, and once we have received the report we will review it, meet with them and discuss future options. One of the other things that we are going to be doing though is monitoring the progress of the people who have gone through the program, and how they make out in their home communities over the next months and years. I hope we demonstrate that there has been some long-term success to this program.

Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I was really quite happy when I heard about the Tl'oondih Healing Society and the partnership with the Department of Justice. Is this program going to be considered to be used across the Northwest Territories for other regions or communities that may wish to enter into arrangements similar to the Tl'oondih Healing Society and the Department of Justice in terms of reintegrating our own people back in our communities? The best way, and I applaud the department again, is on the land. The elders have always said to have more of these types of program on the land, and I wanted to thank the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the goal of setting this program up was to find out whether or not it would improve results. So certainly we would look at this as a pilot project. Of course we will have to examine how many inmates there are in the system at any given time who would qualify for this kind of program, and how many programs like it we can run would be somewhat dependent on that. So I can’t predict whether or not there will be opportunities in other regions, or how often we will be able to do it, but certainly we were looking at this as a pilot project and we will want to examine our options for continuing the approach.

Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question to the Minister is could we use the Tl'oondih healing model in the communities for early prevention as a first option for people, rather than sending them to a facility here in Yellowknife? Can we use this type of model in our communities to have them out on the land, rather than having them flown down to the facility here in Yellowknife? I would encourage something like that from this department. Thank you.

Minister of Justice, Minister Dent.

Further Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has had a number of on-the-land programs available for inmates for quite some time. There has been some problem though finding enough inmates who are interested in taking this approach, or even getting themselves involved. So it hasn’t been one where we’ve had more inmates wanting to do it than we have space. It has been the other way around, unfortunately. I would agree with the Member that this would be a very good approach, and I think that it has a lot of long-term prospects for rehabilitation over straight incarceration, but we have to have the right mix of inmates and people who are prepared to undertake that kind of programming before it can be used. So we certainly encourage it, but it takes full size willingness to see the approach.

Thank you again, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the federal Sex Offender Information Registry Act passed third reading in the Senate, and received Royal Assent on April 1st of this year. Mr. Speaker, when it comes into force, the act will require sex offenders in the NWT to register with police in designated centres. Their personal information will be recorded, and their whereabouts will be monitored for the well-being and safety of the NWT residents. According to Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, the Sex Offender Information Registry Act will come into force in the fall of 2004, and all jurisdictions across Canada will be ready to implement the act at that time. I understand there have been ongoing negotiations between provinces, territories, the RCMP and the federal government about the implementation of the sex offender registry. Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister of Justice is will the Minister please tell the assembly if the GNWT will be ready to implement the act this fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 160-15(3): National Sex Offender Registry

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that no one is going to be ready to implement by this fall. I understand that the most recent meeting to discuss the implementation of this act, the RCMP has indicated for instance that they can’t be ready by this fall. There are a number of issues that have to be addressed, so the committee is working at moving the process along. There is a committee made up of representatives from all jurisdictions, and my understanding is now that we are looking at early 2005 for the registry to become active.

Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 160-15(3): National Sex Offender Registry

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to tell us some of the hurdles that we are receiving, so, therefore, essentially are causing the problems for implementation and be specific as to proposed timelines? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.