Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Justice prioritize work programs that are responsive to community needs, subject to necessary safety and security restrictions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is on the floor. To the motion. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In our public consultations, we heard community members speak positively of inmates doing work in their communities when they were incarcerated, that they were part of work programs and they did good volunteer work in the, or it was not necessarily volunteer, but good work in the community. It could be cutting lawns. It could be shovelling sidewalks. It could be stacking tables after a public event. The public consultation also indicated that people felt that was a very positive thing, to connect the community and the inmates together around a constructive activity, and they lamented that this program has really fallen off in recent years. We learned that the major reason that it has fallen off is that many more inmates are on remand rather than sentenced.
The corrections staff has said that they posed some security risk on remand that is not the same as when they have been sentenced, and so this component of programming has really been reduced in recent years. We heard clearly that people would like to see it come back, subject to necessary precautions. The background to this committee motion is to reflect what we heard, that the work programs were useful and that people would like to see them reinstated. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the security assessment tool used by the correctional service be objective, structured, and empirically defensible, and that a risk assessment tool that considers the unique realities of Indigenous inmates be developed and used. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. The motion is on the floor. To the motion. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Security assessment tools are standard practice in correctional facilities, and the concern that this particular recommendation addresses is that the assessment tool be particularly inclusive of the realities of Indigenous inmates, that, particularly, corrections staff look for security assessment tools that are culturally more appropriate than a standard tool that may be developed and used on a Caucasian population. We recognize that there are different tools, and we are encouraging with this motion that corrections finds and tries tools that may be more appropriate to the NWT inmate population, which is overwhelmingly NWT Indigenous peoples. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Justice invest adequate resources into victim services to ensure public awareness of these programs; and further, that the victim services staff are in a position to inform victims of details pertinent to their well-being and safety, including cases where a person remanded in custody is released by the courts. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We recognize that the Department of Justice is currently reviewing its victim services program and that there may be recommendations in that review that improve the service that is being offered, and so this motion really speaks to that, that the victim services staff in given communities are able to serve the needs of victims, not only by providing information about inmates but also by providing information about people who are on remand, so that the victims are aware of basic information about the person being released and to where and so on. More details about this are in the bill, but this is just more generally about the service behind the delivery that is outlined in the bill, to victims of those who are in correctional facilities. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends, to the extent it is possible before the dissolution of the 18th Assembly and for the public record, that the government provide a response to these recommendations, even of a preliminary nature, and that the committee may publicly disclose. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Thank you, committee. Do you agree that we have concluded consideration of Committee Report 34-18(3)?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 34-18(3), Standing Committee on Social Development Report on the Review of Bill 45, Corrections Act. Committee, do you agreed to consider Bill 45, Corrections Act?
Agreed.
Thank you. I will ask the Minister responsible to introduce the bill. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to discuss Bill 45, Corrections Act. The purpose of Bill 45 is to repeal and replace the current NWT Corrections Act, which is over 40 years old.
The changes proposed are intended to update NWT corrections legislation to bring it into line with the evolution in corrections over the past several years and incorporate the reformed practices and approaches that have emerged at the national and international levels.
The bill makes a number of improvements to the current legislative framework of the corrections system in the areas of accountability, supporting the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into the community, reducing the risk of reoffending, and keeping our communities safe.
The bill recognizes the unique cultural background, historic legacy, and experience of offenders in the NWT and sets the framework for incorporating these elements into the rehabilitation process. The bill also includes operational improvements in the areas of risk management and security, quality assurance and monitoring, and staff training.
Significant changes being proposed in the new act include:
provide for the establishment of independent community advisory boards;
facilitate the involvement of Indigenous governments in the delivery of corrections programs and services;
clarify the link between case planning and programming for remanded persons, sentenced offenders in facilities, and offenders in community-based corrections;
establish oversight by an investigations and standards office and provide for independent decision-making in disciplinary matters and the use of separate confinement;
increase authorities related to the search and monitoring of those in a correctional centre or seeking to enter a correctional centre;
provide for the establishment of a notification program that respects the rights of victims and includes a victim-offender mediation program;
clarify the rules relating to the appropriate use of separate confinement, including fixing time limits, providing for independent oversight, and specifically defining the authorities for placement; and
provide for the development of a corrections employee code of conduct that employees and service providers are required to follow.
I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Development for their thorough review of this bill. I would also like to thank our respective officials for their collaboration and for going above and beyond to find mutually agreeable solutions that have enhanced and improved the bill. I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 45. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development, the committee that considered the bill, for opening comments. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will, again, be very quick. Again, I would like to thank the Minister, his staff, Legislative Assembly staff, and committee for all of the hard work that was done. Again, like the Minister has said, I think that the department staff and the Legislative Assembly staff went above and beyond. There were lots of long hours, but it was amazing to watch them work to achieve this great bill in front of us. I say it is a great bill because I think, as we have talked about it, it was something that I don't think that we would have been able to see in the 19th Assembly. I think it was a lot of good work.
Again, I would just like to thank everybody who was involved. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this a good time to do opening comments on the bill, or wait until the witnesses are here?
Thank you, Ms. Green. We will have the floor open to comments later, after the Minister and witnesses have taken a chair. Thank you. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber? Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to have witnesses with me. To my right is Martin Goldney, deputy minister of Justice, and to my left is Mike Reddy, director of Legislation Division, Justice. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 45. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to add to the Minister's opening comments about some of the substantive changes that were negotiated and agreed to in the clause-by-clause review. As one of my colleagues mentioned, there were 32 motions, and it is certainly not my intention to go over all of them.
Some of the significant changes to the bill included a statement of purpose for the bill and guiding principles, a statement of victims' rights, and the inclusion of the development and offering of both general and rehabilitative programs that would be offered to both sentenced and remanded inmates. This was really a key demand of all those letters that we received, as referenced earlier, from inmates in the fall of, I think, 2017.
The bill also established minimum living standards for inmates. It talks about the use of force and security assessments. It now makes a distinction between separate confinement and solitary confinement. The difference there is that solitary confinement has a disciplinary element. It provides for adjudicators for disciplinary matters and also a complaints process. We will be seeing, going forward, an annual report from Corrections on a number of different matters that are contained within this bill.
This is a better bill from having worked together, and with the witnesses here, especially the deputy Minister, I would like to express my thanks for their problem-solving approach to this bill. I think that we all ended up with a better piece of legislation as a result. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Sebert.
I would like to thank committee Members for their comments today. An awful lot of work did go into this, and that is why we have the improved product that is before us today. I, too, would like to thank the staff who worked so hard on this and the committee Members who contributed significantly. As I say, the bill is much better, and it is something that we all can be proud of. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Ms. Green.
Nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Next on the list, we have Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, for one, am glad to see the old act being changed, taking into account the number of problems and concerns and phone calls and interactions we have within our smaller communities particularly, in the areas of social development and victims of abuse. As my colleague from the Deh Cho had mentioned earlier, trauma experienced during the residential school, that environment really adds to program delivery, as mentioned in the summary of the act or the bill, with the statement: the new act focuses less on punishment and more on rehabilitation and community reintegration of the offender. What is missing there is reconciliation during incarceration, and I feel comfortable by the opening comment by the Minister that there will be a wide range of improvements to the current framework of the corrections system in the area of programming and counselling.
One of the many things that I continue to support is on-the-land programming, as the department has had programs in the past, and, from what I have heard, there were a number of success stories on the offenders coming out of these on-the-land camps, connecting themselves back to their culture under that environment and moving ahead. At the appropriate time there, I would like to talk a little bit more about one of the experiences on the establishment of the Gladue Report. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Sebert.
Again, I would like to thank the Member for his comments, and I don't want to repeat what I have already said again. We are proud of this piece of legislation. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Any further questions from committee? Seeing none, does committee agree that there are no further comments?
Agreed.
