Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about the justice system. I would like to ask the Minister of Justice questions. I would like to ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, if the Department of Justice is working with other departments to reduce Indigenous inmate population? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, the department of course recognizes that there is an over-representation of Indigenous people in our facilities, and we are working with other departments to find ways to reduce that over-representation. Now, the current committee of Cabinet structure brings together all social development Ministers and deputies to collaborate and discuss cross-departmental work to provide a collaborative approach on social issues, so we are working with other departments hopefully to reduce this rather shocking figure.
I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to directing the Department of Justice to lead a government working group -- I am not speaking of the Ministers but maybe of a lower level of working group -- to incorporate some changes to reduce the Indigenous inmate population.
There are currently many interdepartmental working groups that focus on social program issues, such as the integrated case management interdepartmental working group, family violence working group, and therapeutic community steering committee, so there are interdepartmental working groups already working in this area on the federal-provincial-territorial side. We are also working nationally as the federal government rolls out its strategic action plan to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people. So we are working both within our government and with other governments.
The social development committee has been working on this whole Justice file, of course, from the beginning. I would like to ask the Minister if he would work with the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation so that inmates are not released into homelessness?
Yes, we recognize that the reintegration of inmates back into the communities is an important part of the corrections service, and certainly we can work with Housing. However, as you know, there is a shortage of housing in the Northwest Territories, and, while we work with inmates who are being released as they go back into the communities, we cannot guarantee that they can jump the queue, if I can put it that way. So there is a shortage of housing. We do attempt to assist them.
Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have spoken to former inmates, some who have long records and long incarceration backgrounds. Particularly two adult former inmates indicate to me that the biggest help that they had while they were incarcerated was working with mental health workers. I would like to ask the Minister if he could commit to looking at increasing the number of mental health workers, I guess, maybe working with the Department of Health or on their own to have mental health workers in the correction facilities to work with the inmates? Thank you.
There are currently two registered psychologists at the North Slave Correctional Centre and one registered psychologist at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. Fort Smith Correctional Centre is currently in the staffing process for a counsellor. Now, the majority of people who are in the facilities are there for less than 90 days and many for less than 30 days. So we will make efforts to ensure that all inmates are aware of the mental health resources that are available to them. So, again, we do have, currently, registered psychologists at two of the institutions, and we are hoping to staff at Fort Smith Correctional Centre. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
