Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my next question was on -- the deputy had just answered was to talk about the land use plan for the NWT Metis Nation, but I would not ask the question because he already provided me the answer. That is all I have for now, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Seeing no further comments or questions I will call this activity. Page 302, Lands, planning and coordination summary, operations expenditure summary $6,312.000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We have three information items on pages 304, 305, and 306. My apologies, on pages 305 and 306, just two information items. Lease commitments and work performed on behalf of others. Comments or questions on page 305 or 306? Mr. O'Reilly. Please indicate which page you are referencing.
Sorry, Mr. Chair, it was 303. We have finished that, so it is okay.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. I see no questions on these information items. We will return to page 289, to the total department. Please note there, there are also information items on pages 290 and 291. Do we have comments or questions on the total department, page 289, or the associated information items? If not, I will call the department. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Lands at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. There's a motion to defer. The motion is on the floor and is being distributed. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
We have deferred the Department of Lands. I want to thank the witnesses for appearing. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
I will call committee back to order. Committee, I would like to recognize one of our visitors in the gallery, Patrick Joss. I would like to thank him for attending and paying such close attention to the proceedings of this House. Thank you very much.
I call committee back to order. We have agreed to consider the Department of Justice. I will turn to the Minister for opening comments. Minister Sebert.
I am pleased to present the 2017-2018 Main Estimates for the Department of Justice. Overall, the department's estimates propose a decrease of just over $3.6 million or 2.9 per cent less than the 2016-2017 Main Estimates. These estimates continue to support the GNWT's objective of ensuring a strong and sustainable future for the government and its programs. Taking into consideration our limited growth in revenue, these estimates also reflect the need to closely manage our expenditures.
The 2017-2018 Main Estimates include an increase of just over $1.3 million from the business plan reviewed by standing committee in September. These increases are mainly due to new federal funding for victim services, as well as support to continue the Integrated Case Management Pilot project.
The 2017-2018 Main Estimates include reductions of just over $2.4 million, much of which results from the second year impact of reductions made in 2016-17. Other reductions were carefully considered to avoid or limit impacts on public services and staff. Sunsets of time-limited funding and other adjustments of just over $2.7 million make up the remainder of the budget decrease, which primarily results from the completion of the Inuvik RCMP Detachment.
Forced growth of just over $1.4 million is also identified for 2017-18. Increases for the RCMP account for just over $1 million of the forced growth total. This includes the creation of the Child Exploitation Unit, as well as funding for the Emergency Response Team and Protective Technical Services Unit.
The department's proposed spending in 2017-18 continues to support the priorities of the 18th Legislative Assembly. Specific activities in support of these priorities include funding of $564,000 to continue the Integrated Case Management Pilot project. This project is part of the government's commitment to examine innovative ways to prevent and reduce crime. This funding increase will allow the department to take lessons learned and apply them to continued program delivery in Yellowknife, and facilitate an expansion to other communities in the future.
Participants in this project, often common clients of a number of departments, receive assistance in accessing services related to a variety of needs, such as housing, income support, mental health, substance abuse, unemployment, and legal issues. So far the results are promising; 147 clients have been referred to the project, but we will know more when the evaluation is completed this March.
In addition to the Integrated Case Management Pilot project, the Department of Justice is also making progress on a range of other mandate commitments. We are working on initiatives aimed at reducing crime and family violence, assisting families in crisis, improving access to justice, and improving access to information and privacy protections for our residents. That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Do you have witnesses you would like to bring into the Chamber?
I do.
Thank you, Minister. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses in. Minister, please introduce your witnesses for the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Martin Goldney, deputy minister, is to my right. Mandi Bolstad, director of corporate services, to my left. Thank you.
Thank you. Welcome to the witnesses. We will begin with opening comments. First, I have Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Going through this business plan, the social development committee and the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning really appreciate the fact that the men's healing program is funded, but we are really trying to all stress the importance of the recommendation of a regional or modular delivery to extend the program outside of Yellowknife. It is the opportunity to help all residents of the Northwest Territories. I understand that the people who do the men's healing program may or may not get the contract as we move forward, but the biggest challenge is that, if we continue to do it here in Yellowknife, we are going to keep on getting better results here, but not outside the region. Both committees have stressed the importance of increasing this program.
We also talked about the importance of not eliminating the one position, the victim's service position. We feel that that has a huge impact on the individuals who are in the court system and the people who have been victimized. We believe these positions need to be put back into the budget.
On a personal note, I do have to give some credit to the department. I am very happy to see the creation of the Child Exploitation Unit. That is very, very important. I think that, with the way society is going now, this is a huge improvement. I also would like to thank the department for continuing with their Integrated Case Management Pilot project. That is huge. It seemed to work. I think we need to continue it instead of making it a pilot project. I would hope the department, at one point, would actually make it part of the budget completely. That is my closing comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank my colleague, the honourable Member for Nahendeh, for summarizing the shared concerns of the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning. I always appreciate the opportunity to talk about my public service alma mater, the Department of Justice. They do some incredible work. In many ways, the department has a unique role in the integrated case management and other restorative justice programs like that, and community justice-based programs where they can take the work of the other social envelope committees and bring them together. I think the integrated case management is the perfect example of how this government best helps people who have complex needs. It is my hope that we can continue to roll this out beyond justice context, and use the lessons learned here to inform successful response to clients with complex needs across government.
I know some of my constituents, although they have not come into contact with the justice system, or the criminal justice system, they have been referred to the integrated case management. It has been successful in directing them to the right resources.
I think this aspect of the department's work is very important. I am also very pleased that this budget contains a significant amount of new funding for police services, including sheriffs' officers. I know that I have raised this issue before, and the Minister is well aware of that, and the department is now taking steps to evaluate how we can best use our policing services and our police officer services to improve the public safety and efficiency within the department.
I will have more comments to that end when we get into those activities, but apart from the strong desire of the standing committee members to see a greater focus on Victims Services and the Men's Healing Program to take action on the crisis of family violence, most of what Justice is doing is very much appreciated, and is recognized as excellent work. Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Seeing no further general comments, I will go to the Minister. You have 10 minutes to respond. Oh, I am sorry, we have one more general comment from Mr. Blake. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of brief comments here. As I mentioned in a brief statement last week, services have really improved in Tsiigehtchic, and the residents are very happy with that. It is good to see a better presence in the community. We have one unit there in the community for the RCMP to use whenever they come in, which is good. I like the way they are doing it. There is no scheduled time that they are going to be in the community, which is good because people learn the schedules pretty quickly. It is important that they just come and go as they feel fit. That seems to be working well.
Another thing, we are noticing in the Beaufort Delta region, there are more serious drugs coming in. I know they are doing their best there, but a lot of people want to see stiffer sentences. I know with the one case here in Yellowknife, that was the case. We have got to send a strong message that these powerful drugs that are being sold on the streets, people who are going to try to do that will be sent away for long periods of time.
You see in the south, people down there getting 10 to 15 years. For a lot of the crimes that are done up here, people tend to get two years. Pretty light sentences compared to southern jurisdictions. I know people up in my riding have an issue with that.
Like I said, moving forward, there are better services in the communities. I hope the department continues that. That is all I have right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the thing that interests me with this department is the affirmative action numbers. I don't know what they are. In our business plan, it just indicates, although the Department of Justice indicates the whole GNWT. In the whole GNWT, 30 per cent of the hires or employees are Priority 1 candidates, and only 12 per cent of the public service in the GNWT is Priority 2. Fifty-six per cent of the government is Priority 3. What I hear is that certain sections of this department, Department of Justice, have lower numbers than that. I guess I am hoping, as we go through this, the department will be able to answer questions further active positions, what percentage on each of those categories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Further general comments? Seeing none, I will now go to the Minister for a response. Minister, you have 10 minutes.
Certainly. I thank the Members for their comments. We share many of the concerns that have been expressed. Naturally, because of some of the logistics of things, often pilot projects do start off in Yellowknife; however, if they are successful here, they can be expanded. For example, DVTO court has been expanded to Hay River, and hopefully, depending on resources, some of the excellent programs that we do have in the capital, assuming that they are living up to expectations can be expanded to some of the smaller jurisdictions; however, staffing and resources always tends to be an issue.
With respect to Mr. Blake's concerns about sentencing, that is really a matter for the federal government who decides what the provisions are of the Criminal Code. I do know that the judiciary do take these matters very, very seriously, as is evident in some of the press reports of late; however, I do not think the judiciary would appreciate commentary by me as to the appropriate length of sentences.
I thank you all. I look forward to your questions and comments. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. The Department of Justice begins on page 249. As always, we will defer consideration of the departmental total until after we consider each activity. The first activity is community justice and policing. It is on page 257 and includes activity description on page 256, and information items on pages 258 and 259. So, 256 to 259, community justice and policing. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as the Minister knows, we are very interested in this side of the House in the A New Day program. I would like for him to tell us what the plan is going forward for the men's healing program once the contract extension for the current service provider ends in June? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister?
Yes, thank you. As the Members will know, we extended the current contract so that there would be no gaps in services. Of course, there was the report on the New Day program, and based on that, we will be going forward with a request for proposals, and hopefully, we will be starting up the program again in July. So again, there will be no gaps between the present contract and the next contract. That is our wish and our belief. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that response. Can the Minister tell us how the request for proposals for the new service provider will differ from the request for proposals for the previous or the current service provider? What are the major differences that are being contemplated for the next round? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that we were looking for a program that might have more flexibility. There was a fairly significant dropout rate, and, hopefully, the request for proposals will contain within it provisions that will require the provider of the service to provide a perhaps more flexible program. Perhaps the deputy minister could add something to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That really will be the key difference going forward, is a more flexible and adaptive approach. We can't get into too many of the details until the request for proposal is out. The goal is certainly to take the lessons learned from the pilot project, and what we learned quite clearly was that the program should be adapted to make it more accessible for those who want to take advantage of it. One of the things that we noted, the retention rates for participants was not as high as we prefer, suggesting that we needed to have more flexibility in the number of sessions offered and greater frequency in the sessions offered. We also expect to make changes to make the administration of the program a little easier for the contractors and the facilitators delivering the curriculum. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Goldney. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that answer. Some of the issues raised in the evaluation address administration and clinical supervision as areas of weakness in the current program. How will those weaknesses be addressed going forward? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do recognize that as an issue. We are looking at ways in the request for proposals so that, administration and clerical functions, we want to be sure that they don't impede the delivery of the program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I find that answer a bit opaque. I wonder if the Minister could elaborate? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Well, we are still working on the request for proposals. I think that what we wish to do is move some of the administrative and clerical functions away from the party who actually contracts with us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Okay. So what are the choices, then, if you are going to move the administration and clerical functions away? Would they then become part of the department, or would there been another service provider who provides the clinical and administrative oversight? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
I think one of the possibilities we are looking at is to make the clerical and organizational functions part of the department, that is delivered by the government. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am interested to hear that. That seems like an expensive remedy to the weakness that was found in the current service provider. Are there any other alternatives for ensuring that this program remains a communitybased program? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Mr. Chair, we are not anticipating any increase in costs, and we simply felt that some of the problems with the program in the past, if there were such problems, were at that level, so we thought that we could streamline the program by having those clerical type, organizational type, functions within the government and allow those that were responding to the request for proposals deliver what they do best, that is the actual program, itself. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
