Thank you. Page 294, community justice and policing, grants, contributions and transfers, total contributions, $2.169 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 295, community justice and policing, active positions, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Page 297, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $39.477 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 298, corrections, grants, contributions and transfers, total contributions, $179,000. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask, under the wilderness camps, how many camps does that funding represent? Is that one in each region or what is the breakdown per camp that is out there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our hope is to have more than one established and the funding we have here, I guess, would be a nominal amount. Our hope is that we can get more than one up and running and be successful. So in future years you could see a bigger line item.
As we’ve mentioned, we have had trouble in the past, but we’re hopeful with the proponents we have now to find one we can work with and maybe even two. I think if we have more than one, that’s a good problem to have. We may have to adjust, depending on the success of the discussions we have with the people that expressed interest in that, wilderness camps. Thanks.
So, at the moment are there any camps that are operating already and are we seeking more in this last proposal that went out? Thank you.
There aren’t any camps currently operating and that’s why it’s so important that we see at least one up and running. We have, under a different line item here, $787,000. This isn’t the only amount, the $149,000. We do have $787,000 as well. But again, if we require more funds, if we’re successful and we can have a wilderness camp established in two or even three regions, that’s something we’ll have to revisit. Thank you.
That’s good. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just something that I forgot to ask about when I made my general comments and that’s the status of the women’s correctional centre in Fort Smith, the new building. How is that going? Has it started construction yet? What kind of a time frame are we on? Thank you.
Okay, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe that it is out for tender currently and that’s the current status of the facility. Thank you.
So, to the Minister: What’s the expected date of construction and when might the facility be open? Thank you.
Our hope is to have the facility in operation by December of 2016. Thank you.
Thank you. Committee, we’re on page 298, corrections, grants, contributions and transfers, total contributions, $179,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, page 299, corrections, active positions, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 301, court services, operations expenditure summary, $14.693 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 302, court services, active positions, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 305, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $6.303 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to know from the Minister in regards to the legal aid services in our smaller communities, regions. I know I spoke to the Minister earlier in the year on an issue that came up in my riding and the Minister responded with some of the issues the department has to deal with.
I’m more concerned with the quality of the services provided to my constituents when they have to go to court and the quality and the quantity of time with their legal aid counsel. Is the policy to have a number of lawyers in each community when they have a court hearing? I think the Minister and I talked about some of that and it wasn’t to the satisfaction of my constituents. I just want to raise it again and see if they could bring some legal aid services into the Sahtu region. That way they would receive a better quality of legal counsel before anybody attends a court hearing.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his question. Again, we’ve had some success in our outreach, the legal aid outreach to communities. Last year some of the communities we were in were Kakisa, Fort Providence, Behchoko, Fort Good Hope, Tulita, Deline, Colville Lake, Norman Wells, Hay River, Detah and Ndilo. We will continue that effort, but the Member’s question about having another lawyer, it would depend on the roster and what is scheduled and, really, the need. If that can be demonstrated, then that’s something we could consider. I thank the Member for bringing that to our attention.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Committee, we’re on page 305, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $6.303 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. On page 306, legal aid services, active positions, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 309, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.573 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 311, services to government, operations expenditure summary, $13.503 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 312, services to government, grants, contributions and transfers, total grants, $9,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 313, services to government, active positions, information item only. Any questions? Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know in our little discussion back and forth with the Minister and his staff yesterday, I did make another plea, I guess, to the domestic violence death review committee, and I appreciate the answer that the Minister did give. I know, and standing committee knows, all the hard work that goes into creating an act or creating something of the nature, and appreciating the time that we have left in this government and the big pieces of legislation that we’re trying to do moving forward, I still wanted to put an emphasis on the importance of having such an act in place or even a committee in place. As I mentioned, there are many jurisdictions across Canada that do this and I just wanted, for the record as well as just to create some awareness and education, talk about one of the acts that another jurisdiction has.
The purpose of having a domestic violence death review committee or an act is to establish a multi-disciplinary committee to review the circumstances surrounding deaths that occur as a result of domestic violence and to make the recommendations to help prevent domestic violence deaths. As I said, it doesn’t hold more water than what has been in the news recently. In the news it says that incidents happened and there were repeated, repeated incidents that should have been stopped and caught before. When things like this do come up, it brings out a passion in me and I think that even with the time we could look at doing a feasibility study into creating something and this not be forgotten in the next government.
Under this, the role of the committee, I’m just going to use my time to just explain what the role of the committee is. They would conduct a confidential review of each domestic violence death referred to it by the Minister, making recommendations to the Minister after each review to help prevent future deaths in similar circumstances. I’m sure we can name quite a few of these circumstances in the Northwest Territories that have occurred. Also, creating and maintaining a comprehensive database about the victims and the perpetrators of domestic violence deaths and the circumstances that led up to those deaths. We could put the policies and all the provisions in place and catch these so they wouldn’t happen to any other individuals in the Northwest Territories.
The committee would also be helping identify the presence or absence of systemic problems or risk factors that may have contributed to the death’s review. I can already think of about eight communities that don’t have RCMP and don’t have nurses. I can think of communities that don’t have victim support coordinators. I can think of all the lack of psychologists that we have in some of the small communities and some of the isolated communities. This committee would make recommendations. This committee would also be helping identify transient patterns from the deaths reviewed to make recommendations for effective prevention and intervention strategies.
Just a little bit further in terms of who would be on the committee. It’s not really a question. I’m trying to sell this. I’m trying to talk about the importance of having this and why we need it in place. Members would be appointed by the Minister and the Minister can appoint up to his discretion, but in some jurisdictions it’s six to nine person review committees. One, of course, would be the office of the chief medical examiner, organizations or groups advocating for the prevention of domestic violence, victims services, police services, and organization or sectors specified by the regulations. There is a lot of good groundwork or framework that other jurisdictions are doing. I mean, there wouldn’t be a lot of work to look at creating legislation or looking at the feasibility of having this.
When we hear stories like we did in the news recently, it’s heartbreaking for us, because we make decisions in here, but when it happens in a small community in a region where a lot of people in the Northwest Territories, we’re a small population and it affects us all. I mean, having this in place so we can prevent it, I think, cannot fall off the books, it cannot fall off the batting order. I know we have I don’t know how many months left in this government, but that shouldn’t be an excuse to say why we’re not going to do this and leave it for the next government. I mean, we can still start a feasibility study, we can start that communication with other jurisdictions.
I wanted to take this opportunity. I listened to what the Minister said yesterday. At the initial time I accepted it, but when you read the story and you read comments that are on Facebook, it’s disheartening and I think this government needs to take action and move forward. I mean, the Department of Justice has been doing a really great job in many areas, and I think this one is a very important piece of the puzzle in terms of affecting our high violence rates in the Northwest Territories.
More of a comment. I want to take the opportunity and get it down on the record as an education and awareness piece to all Members of the Legislative Assembly and not just the Minister responsible.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Moses, I let you continue on. You’re probably one activity ahead of yourself. This goes under services to public. That said, I didn’t want to cut you off, but we will allow the Minister of Justice to reply. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I enjoyed listening to the Member’s passionate plea. It is and continues to be something of great interest to the coroner. As we move forward, I think it’s something, again, that we can look at. It won’t be very much longer until the 18th Legislative Assembly is in place. It’s only nine months, 10 months. We will also need to, and I want to highlight this, I think Health and Social Services will have to figure prominently into the rollout of such a review committee. They are responsible for the domestic violence prevention and that side of things, so we need to be working with them on an approach to this.
I could see the coroner certainly leading the charge, and it’s good to know that we’ve got some Members here who would be supportive of those legislative changes that would be required to bring death review committees to light here in the Northwest Territories.
I want to thank the Member for his interest and passion in that regard. Thank you.
I apologize, Mr. Chair. I thought we were on services to the public. Just in terms of continuing with the momentum, we’ve got about eight or nine months left in this government and I know we do transitional documents. This is something that could be started in a feasibility study. If we can get a commitment that we get this in the transitional works for the 18th Assembly, who knows who’s going to be here in the next government and whoever comes in will understand what this actually is and the effectiveness that this will have. If we can get a commitment or something of that nature from the Minister that we will work hard to get this into the transitional document, I would really appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would encourage the Member to do that. I know transitions take different forms over the years I have been here. Sometimes with committees, committees do their own transition, you know, SCEDI or Social Programs and it feeds into one document. I’m not sure how that’s going to play itself out this year. Again, I would encourage the Member to seek that support on his committee that he chairs, the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and other members to get it into a transition document. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Ms. Bisaro.
Are we on services to public?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We are on page 313, services to government, active positions, information item. Any questions?
