Mr. Speaker, during the election I heard a lot of comments and concerns about crime in Yellowknife. It has been over a year and those concerns still exist in my riding. Specifically the number of B and Es is up. I’ve had constituents tell me they have witnessed drug deals on the streets in front of their homes, and I’ve even had one constituent assaulted in his own yard after interrupting a potential B and E. Solutions, I believe, are going to require a solid, dedicated partnership between the DOJ and the Department of Health.
Today I would specifically like to ask the Minister of Justice some questions. I would like to thank them for the work they’ve done with respect to auxiliary police and special constables, but there hasn’t been much change on the street. There is still a lot of crime occurring. I think it’s going to take some creative thinking to solve some of these problems. We need some eyes on the street. One group in Yellowknife that is doing that is the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition. I was wondering if the Minister of Justice could tell me what level of financial support they have provided to that organization this year and how that compares to funding they provided in previous years, specifically last fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, it would take a partnership between the Department of Justice, Health and Social Services, and the community, whether it be the City of Yellowknife or the coalition the Member is referring to. Funding has been allocated through my department and also through homelessness funding. There is certain funding provided to organizations to deal with these, whether it be for the break and enters or to assist the RCMP officers at the ground level. We as the 16th Assembly did make a commitment. It’s one of the priorities of the 16th Assembly to deal with those issues at hand. Community policing was a big issue, which we need to deal with.
We will continue to be vocal with the federal government and also with my counterparts, the Cabinet and also the Members during the business planning process. I can certainly provide the Member with a detailed outline of the program dollars that are being transferred or committed to this coalition group. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister of Justice for that information. I was wondering if he could tell me if, in fact, the Department of Justice provided any financial support to the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition for the 2008–2009 fiscal year.
Mr. Speaker, I need to get that further detailed information for the Member. I don’t have it in front of me today, but I would certainly be more than happy to provide that detailed 2008–2009 contribution to the coalition if there has been some in the past.
I look forward to seeing that information once the Minister of Justice provides it to me.
In a similar line, would the Department of Justice consider core funding to the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition so that they would be able to hire a coordinator to provide further training to their membership and promote their organization? It would benefit not just Yellowknife. If this organization is established, they’d certainly be able to provide the best practices to some of the other larger communities in the Northwest Territories — Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, Simpson — which may be able to benefit from their expertise and put in similar organizations within their own communities.
Mr. Speaker, we need to review all the contributions we made to organizations in the community. There is the John Howard Society; there is the City of Yellowknife, which is also in partnership with this particular initiative; the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition; and other sectors that we do provide contributions to. We have to keep in mind that we are going through the business planning process. We’ll be discussing the importance of community safety, so this could be one of the topics of discussion.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and once again thanks to the Minister of Justice. Given that one of our mandates is to increase safety and security in our community and that falls under the responsibility of one of our new strategic investment committees, I could see this as being part of one of our new initiatives, one of our new strategic directions we could take. I would encourage the Minister and I’d like him to commit to talking to the Minister responsible for that strategic investment committee to work with these organizations and provide some longer term funding so that we can actually see some results on our streets.
Mr. Speaker, I will commit in this House that I will continue to work with my colleagues on the importance of community policing, because we’re here to prevent things from happening, such as the crimes that are in the communities.
Another thing I would like to point out is that we also work with the community justice programs and the community justice committees. I think that’s an important factor we have to keep in mind. They’re the ones who deal with the community’s local issues. Certainly, I will continue to work with my Cabinet colleagues to initiate this process. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
