Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is that something that the Minister can find out for us to share with us? Secondly, if it isn't something that is going on, would it be a responsibility that the GNWT could ask of the RCMP, or does community by community have to ask for such a report? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
Again, Mr. Chair, I can't speak to the individual arrangements between the communities and the RCMP, but I can certainly find out whether the police do supply those statistics to the town councils or governments in those communities. One would hope they would. All I can say is that they certainly do in the community I used to live in. I would assume that would be the template for other communities also. We can check on that and get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, indeed, that information would be welcome. For a moment, let's switch over to community justice committees. Can the department give us an update on the status of community justice committees? Are there or have there been any that are established? Maybe a bit of a brief update on what the success, if any, has been of these panels as it relates to a means to reduce the amount of pressure put on the court system and to promote the restorative model of justice. Can we get an update from the department? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, in 2016-17, 29 communities have accessed funding for restorative justice programs. There are a few communities that have not. Certainly, I can speak for my former community that the community justice group or panel was very active in the community. Sometimes it is hard to find members who are willing to put in the time that is required. Again, of course, our department wants to develop community-based solutions for minor criminal offences. As I mentioned earlier, a good number of matters are diverted, and this is the ideal type of organization to assist in that method of dealing with minor criminal matters without the necessity of taking them to court. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.
I agree with the Minister that it is certainly a good means to divert a lot from the formal court system and alleviate pressure on the court system. I am still not hearing from the Minister as to what the success might be. Is the structure of the community justice committees in place? Is there information that the department can share with us to let us know which ones are in place and are actually having an effect on a restorative model of justice? Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is all I have.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, as I mentioned earlier, 29 communities do have restorative justice programs. I would like to feel that they are all successful. I suppose it depends somewhat on the commitment of those who are sitting on these committees. I mean, success, I suppose, is somewhat hard to judge. I do know, speaking from the community that I represent, that a great number of matters were diverted from the court system. It does, however, take dedicated members to sit on the restorative justice committee. So, overall, I would say the program is a success. I suppose it works better in some communities than others. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Further questions? Seeing no further questions or comments from committee, please turn to page 274, Justice, policing services, operations expenditure summary, total activity, $42,804,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now proceed to the next activity, services to government. The activity description is found on page 275. The activity detail is on page 276, and related information items are found on pages 277 and 278. I remind committee to specify the page on which the items you are referring to can be found. Does committee have any questions or comments? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am wondering, under the line legislation division, there is a decrease from the revised estimates to this year's. Could the Minister explain what accounts for that variance? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand that the decline is related to the reduced amount of work required for devolutionrelated issues. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would those devolutionrelated issues be related to legislative drafting? I am wondering if the Minister can provide details. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Deputy Minister Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there are two positions identified that are being sunsetted that were initially put in place to help implement devolution, with the expectation at the time that there would be devolutionrelated drafting carrying on for the immediate term after devolution. I think our experience has shown that that was perhaps a little ambitious, but we do recognize that, as legislative needs related to those projects come forward, we are confident that we have the retained capacity to address them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Goldney. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, just to be clear, this variance is: we are losing legislative capacity that the department now considers unnecessary to complete our current legislative agenda. Is that correct? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Sebert.
I understand, really, we are talking about one legislative counsel and one administrative assistant, and so I suppose that there is some loss of capacity, but there is less work. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to confirm the other part of my question, it is in the Minister's opinion that this will not impact this Assembly's ability to deliver on its legislative agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Sebert.
I understand that the position, Mr. Chair, was vacant in any case, but, no, we think we have sufficient resources. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is the legislation division working at full capacity currently? There have been comments made previously in this review and in the House on the slow pace of legislation, so I am wondering if we are using this division to the fullest of its ability, as the Minister says it is sufficient at current numbers. Are all of our drafters currently being utilized to the fullness of their capacity? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This issue has come up before in speaking to people in the department about this very issue, whether we had the legislative capacity. Of course, legislation has to be in official languages, and so on. I asked: do we have enough people so that the lack of legislative drafters will be a problem? I am told no. So it is really a question of us getting the work to them. We believe they have the capacity to complete their tasks in a timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate that. In the future, if there are any legislative delays, we know where to place our concerns: on the shoulders of the Ministers responsible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Sebert.
I could perhaps add to that, just to say that, should we be in that position, if there is such an overwhelming amount of legislation that is being produced by this House, there is also the possibility of contracting additional people. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Further questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I believe this is where the rental office is located, in the Department of Justice. There has been some discussion in this House about the backlog of cases there, and it does not look like there is any additional funding for the rental office in next year's budget. In fact, it has actually been declining over time, if you go back to 201516. What is the plan to deal with this backlog, if we are not actually going to increase the funding for this function? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is actually in the section services to the public. I wonder if we could hold off the question until we reach that section. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I am happy to wait. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Sorry about that.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Do you have an additional question? Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Further questions? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wonder, through our mandate, we indicated we are going to develop the legislation to establish an independent Office of the Ombudsman. Can the department provide us an update as to what other departments we are working with, what the status of the work is, exactly what kind of work is going on, and when we can expect to see the proposed legislation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
Yes. Last year at this point, Mr. Chair, of course, we were working on our mandate, and we made a commitment to develop legislation within two years to establish the independent Office of the Ombudsman. The Department of the Executive actually is developing a legislative proposal for spring, late spring, perhaps early summer 2017. Again, there was a series of issues that had to be determined, the scope of it, whether the Ombudsman could initiate investigations on his own, so those issues are being examined. A legislative proposal will come forward by the early summer. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, further to what might be being looked at for consideration, what work is the department doing in considering other jurisdictions, in particular, the Yukon model that is seemingly fairly successful?
One of the key aspects of the Yukon model is its ability to conduct its own investigations, but also to be able to work on behalf of other bodies at their request. Is this something that we are going to be considering in our model? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
