I believe the Minister said A New Day is not accessible to those in remand. It's my understanding that twice a month A New Day goes to remand and provides counselling sessions for inmates. So am I wrong or is the Minister misinformed?
Mr. Speaker, A New Day program is a community-based pilot program that takes place outside of the jail system. Certainly people currently in custody, who will ultimately of course be released, may be encouraged to take the full A New Day program once they are released.
I recommend that the Minister checks his facts on that. I'd also like to ask the Minister, being our Attorney General, he's aware of the Gladue decision of the Supreme Court, which says that, in sentencing, courts must look at culturally-appropriate sanctions for offences when it comes to Aboriginal offenders. Seeing as A New Day is the only program really aimed at men when it comes to issues with domestic violence, if the government doesn't continue this program how is it living up to its obligations to provide these sort of programs for the judiciary so the judiciary can live up to the expectations and orders of the Supreme Court?
Mr. Speaker, as I've mentioned several times already, the government is interested and dedicated to this type of program. We are simply asking for time to evaluate the report that should be provided to me very shortly. Of course, I am aware of the Gladue case which was referred to by the Member opposite. The judiciary is aware of A New Day program. But, as I mentioned, it is a voluntary program, so I don't think it would be appropriate or wise to have a requirement to attend the program imposed as part of a probation order. The whole point of the program is voluntary for men in our community. Certainly, A New Day program can be advertised to those in custody, but the program is for those who have finished their period of custody or have never been in custody that are on the street, if I can put it that way.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is also my understanding that there are referrals from probation, from parole, from the Wellness Court to take A New Day. So, again, I'd like the Minister to maybe read his briefing notes again on this topic.
My final question is in July the Minister wrote a letter to me in response to questions I had earlier on the program. In that letter it said, "The Department of Justice is in the process of determining what options are available to continue the men's program should the evaluation find it to be ineffective." This is Tabled Document 127-18(2). So in the four months since that letter was written, what has the department done? Where are they in the process of determining options? What have they come up with? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I had mentioned in the House earlier, we are having a report prepared, which we are eagerly awaiting. It is a comprehensive and rather expensive report. I haven't seen the report, I haven't seen even the early draft of it, but I'm sure it will have options. It may be that this type of program should be expanded, but we're waiting for the report to determine that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. One of the issues revealed in the YWCA Study of Improving Responses to Sexual Assault is addressing confusion, especially in small communities, about where to find the kit used to collect evidence of an assault. What steps is the Minister going to take to ensure nursing station staff know where to find and how to use rape kits? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I'm under the impression that we actually have rape kits in the vast majority of our health facilities in the Northwest Territories, but I can't actually say a hundred per cent that we have one in every health authority or health centre. So the first step, obviously, is I will confirm whether or not we have them in the communities and figure out how to get them into the communities so that they're there, and then I'll work with the Member and committee to figure out how best to get that information out to residents across the Northwest Territories, including staff.
Thank you to the Minister for that. So am I to understand that in addition to identifying whether there are rape kits in every place, that the Minister will also commit to ensuring each nursing station staff knows how to use them?
Mr. Speaker, yes, I just need to confirm whether there's one in every health centre across the Northwest Territories; I can't remember off the top of my head if that is the case. I'll also work with the authority to make sure that appropriate training is available.
We do have challenges. We do have a significant amount of turnover, and sometimes we have individuals who are only in for a couple of days, but I will work with the authority to make sure that there's reasonable training to ensure that most of our nurses can be trained in a timely and reasonable way.
Mr. Speaker, the report from the YWCA also references development of a new policy and guidelines for health providers on how to support clients who report sexual assault. I wonder if the Minister can tell us whether that work is now complete?
Mr. Speaker, the report that the Member is referring to, Hush Hush No More, I believe that's the one the Member is referring to, came out in June and it was shared with MLAs, but the YWCA never directly sent it to myself as a Minister asking us to take particular action. I have asked and directed that this report be put on the next Committee of Cabinet, the next Safety and Wellness Committee of Cabinet, so we could discuss it as a whole government.
If you look at the report and look at the recommendations, many of the recommendations are cross-departmental and government as a whole, but not just government. I mean, this report talks clearly about residents of the Northwest Territories, NGOs, many other groups, getting out and talking about sexual assault. There is a significant stigma.
There's people not talking about it and then people, in fact, encouraging people not to talk about it. We work with our partners across government, across the Northwest Territories to encourage people to talk about it. I applaud the Member for obviously raising it in this House and bringing the report to the floor, and I think we all must work together to break the stigma and get the information out there.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Masi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that. One of the things I spoke about in my statement was consent and the issue of raising public awareness around consent would be a multi-departmental issue. So you referenced the Cabinet Committee on Safety and Wellness; is this the kind of work that they might do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, one of the roles of the committees of Cabinet is to help to break down barriers between different departments and get departments working together on cross-purposes. This is certainly an area that I think would fit nicely within the Safety and Wellness Committee of Cabinet, and, as I said, I've referred it to that committee for discussion to see what we're currently doing, what we can do within existing finances, existing resources, and what partnerships we need to work on in order to get that information out.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister for Municipal and Community Affairs in light of the earlier conversation -- or the earlier questions I asked the Premier. The Minister tabled a document, Tabled Document 103-18(2) which was in response to the question on funding 911, which stated: "In light of the Government of the Northwest Territories' current fiscal environment, 911 is not included in MACA's 2017-2018 business plan," and yet the Premier announces that through the business planning process we're making progress on that. Can the Minister confirm if 911 is included in the 2017-2018 business plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Currently, the implementation is not in the business plan.
Can the Minister then explain why we're hearing two different versions of the story on 911? I appreciate that the Premier might not know as much as the Minister, so I'm hoping we get to the bottom of it with the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Currently, the complete implementation of 911 is currently not in the new business plan; however, we have been working with the MLAs and the Minister responsible for Finance has promised that if we can get reductions during this business year that we will be looking at spending money on new initiatives. 911 is one of the new initiatives that we are looking at pushing forward if we can save money currently and use that money for later implementation.
Thank you for the clarification from the Minister. The Minister talked about finding reductions to pay for the new initiative. The government has already indicated it is constantly in the process of finding savings. So I'll defer to the Minister and ask if she's ready to find savings to pay for this program for the 2017-2018 business plan?
We have made proposals to committee and we're currently awaiting feedback from the committee on the acceptance of our proposals.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, the work of the standing committee is important in this process, however, it seems earlier comments pre-empted that work. So again, if the standing committee says go on this initiative, will the Minister commit to do it? Thank you.
As stated before, we have put forward a proposal to the standing committee; we are hoping that they will be reasonable and in recognizing that 911 is one of the initiatives that we are looking at if we can get the reductions that we need to be able to put money into new initiatives.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Northwest Territories Surface Rights Board 2016 Annual Report" and "Northwest Territories Surface Rights Board 2016-2017 Budget." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Tabling of documents. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Tourism 2020: Opening our Spectacular Home to the World."
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to table the report "Hush Hush No More: Sexual Assault in the NWT." Mahsi.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to table this document entitled "100 per cent Renewable Energy in the Northwest Territories by 2050" by Alternatives North dated October 2016. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, November 4, 2016, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on November 4, 2016, it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, January 31, 2017; and further, that any time prior to January 31, 2017, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as it has been duly adjourned to that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Colleagues, before we get to the debate on the motion, the Chair calls for a short recess.
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