Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Justice. I want to ask the Minister of Justice, when we had our meeting in Colville Lake, the people in Colville Lake wanted to ask the Minister how can his department, where can his department find some creativity to work with the people in Colville Lake on the reintegration program. They have young inmates that are incarcerated, that come back to the community, and they want to do more than just ship them back to the community after they’ve done their time at the correctional facility. When or how or where, what can the Minister do to talk to the people or meet with the people to introduce a new or some exciting reintegration program with the community of Colville Lake or any other community, as a matter of fact?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I visited Colville Lake with the Member, the community members did indicate that they’d like to work on some sort of reintegration plan to have inmates from Colville Lake transition back into the community. There wasn’t a lot of talk about the detail, but since then I have received a letter from the chief and council of Colville Lake and we are in the process of drafting a response to that letter saying that we’re very interested in actually finding some way to work together, or actually just working together to develop some sort of reintegration plan in cooperation completely with the chief and council of Colville Lake. Thank you.
Could I ask the Minister when can the community of Colville Lake and the Department of Justice sit down together and look at a community reintegration program and have them come forward possibly for the business plans to look at where there’s going to be some dedicated resources and dollars put to work. Maybe this could be a pilot project for the other communities in bringing back the communities to a more responsible role other than just being a disturbance to the community.
I believe the draft response to the community’s letter is actually in my signing book up in my office. We, obviously, would like to have some representatives of the department meet with the representatives in Colville Lake to start discussing exactly what they mean by reintegration program, finding out what the community can contribute or offer as far as resources or what their ultimate plan would be. We have to make sure that all safety and security issues are dealt with. But I’d like to get the department working with Colville Lake sooner rather than later, so I’ll talk to the department and get some specific dates and share those dates with the Member.
I look forward to the day where the community and the Department of Justice can sign a joint letter saying this is what we want to do and this is where we could help our people.
In the letter it talks about the inmates coming back from the institution and coming back to the communities and ending up doing nothing. They want to do a program on the land, because they believe that there they’ll learn about responsibility and respect through the community. I want to ask the Minister when, between now and the business plans, that the community of Colville Lake can see his officials going to Colville Lake and start hammering out together a joint process where they could both say yes, this is what we want to do and bring it towards the government here for approval of the business plans.
What’s in the letter is exactly what I heard when I was in Colville Lake, that they want to have some sort of reintegration plan that maybe starts with a bit of an on-the-land program and then bringing them back into the communities. I want my department to meet with representatives of Colville Lake, the individuals who sent the letter, sooner rather than later, but I think we need to have a conversation with them as to when would be the best time for us to go and meet them. I think some of the initial discussions can start by distance, but there’s definitely going to be a need for them to get together and sit face to face. I’d like to see that done this summer or in the fall, for sure. I can’t confirm a date because we need to have that conversation with the chief and council in Colville first.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
