Thank you, Member. Minister.
Mr. Chair, thank you. Contract services has two reasons for an increase. The first is in the integrated case management program saw some increase, and then, the guns and gangs is more than double that is the reason for the increase involving having local facilitators in the communities in order to assist in terms of garnering the research that's required to produce that strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm wondering if the Minister can also speak to the first line item, community justice, and indicate in a little bit more detail, the increase of a million dollars under that line item. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was pointed out to me just now, and I want to correct the record that the increase in contract services was exclusively for guns and gangs. It was a reduction on the ICM side, so I apologize for misstating that. With respect to community justice, the increase there, there's a number of reasons for the increase. This is where you get into contribution agreement to victim services. It is one reason for the increase. The increase is in resources to integrated case management of $276,000, as well as some increases as a result of the collective agreement that are increasing salaries during the current period and the impact, and then, yes, also, of course, the increase in funding for guns and gangs initiative of $465,000 is found under that line item. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the Minister have a breakdown of where people or the clients of ICM are from? Are they all from Yellowknife or some from communities? Is it a mixture? Is it exclusively Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In fact, only 55 percent of clients who go through ICM are either born and raised or have been in Yellowknife for more than five years. The rest entirely, so 45 percent of all clients that are receiving services from ICM are from outside of Yellowknife, from other Northwest Territories' communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to the 45 percent that are from outside Yellowknife, do they have to be located within the capital at the time that they're receiving services to get help from ICM, or are they able to seek assistance over the phone, or through somebody located in a community? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. They don't necessarily need to be a resident of Yellowknife in order to. My understanding, anyhow, is that they don't need to be a resident of Yellowknife at the time of being accepted. Acceptance is based more on a referral, and referrals have to come in through a service provider within the social envelope that are participants in the ICM program. I can certainly confirm, and I've been told stories directly about individuals who have continued to receive services through the ICM program even when they have returned home to their home communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to the protection against family violence line, does this also include financial support for victims of family violence? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No. Support for victims of crime directly would be either through victim services or through, perhaps, the emergency victims of crime fund, and I think I may have the fund slightly wrong. This line item is not for that purpose. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. No further questions from Member for Kam Lake. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of comments about this session. In your opening comments, you mentioned there was $5.6 million in forced growth, and that goes to increases in territorial police services agreement. One thing I'd love to see, and I know we are talking a lot about moving towards land claims and moving and implementing those agreements with our Indigenous governments. At some point down the road, I would love to see, to do what other jurisdictions like they do in Alberta. There are some reserves that police their own, like the Blood Tribe Police Services. They hire their own people, and they get funding. They thoroughly vet them, and they do that. At some point, I would love to see some of this instead of going to the RCMP, going to our own people. I think at some point, I'd love to see that.
I have a lot of respect for the RCMP. I've served them, but I think at some point down the road, we're going to finalize some of our agreements here. I'd love to see the Akaitcho hire their own, or the Dehcho, and have their own people enforce their own laws. Dene laws along with our own laws. That's what I would love to see somewhere down the road, and start having those conversations, and moving away from this colonial way of doing business. I'd just thought I'd make that opening comment. I'll leave that with that.
I did have a question with integrated case management, ICM. I notice here it's mainly for Yellowknife and it affects my constituents of Ndilo and Detah.
This is, I guess, the section that you want to be referring to here is a little bit later, the policing section. Right now, we are on community justice and policing. Just bear with me. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Going back to what I was saying about integrated case management. I had a question for the Minister. Just speaking briefly with this, so this ICM, integrated case management covers Yellowknife, Ndilo and Detah. It covers my constituents of Ndilo and Detah, which is great, but it really doesn't offer too much outside of that. Just listening to some other questions here, I didn't really hear anything being addressed about any plans to move this program outside of the Yellowknife area. My question is: do you have any plans to do that, address this ICM and moving into the small communities?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, the program does service Yellowknife, Detah, and Ndilo specifically, and there is no express plan at this point to expand that service. Although, as I noted in some of the earlier questions, fully 45 percent of the individuals who receive services are residents of other communities. That said, the GNWT in general, right now, is taking an approach of trying to move to more integrated services and more integrated service delivery. That's about the best I can say right now, is that there is a broad level of commitment to improving this kind of service across communities and across services. As far as the integrated case management program specifically, there is not a set plan to expand it at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the response from the Minister. I have to say that response saddens me and upsets me. Again, we are starting this theme now where we're having a lot of programs just in the Yellowknife area. We need to have some more parity. This is a really good example of that not happening. We'll keep on going here, but I just wanted to make that known. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Mr. Chair, no, I hear the Member's point. I hear his concerns. I would note that one of the other things that ICM does deliver is identifying barriers in the services that are provided. Certainly, I can commit to saying that as those barriers are being identified, we do now, in this Assembly, the 19th Legislative Assembly need to do a better job of ensuring that those barriers are removed. That will have benefits for our residents across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions? Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just want to have a couple of opening remarks. I was looking at page 261, just before the 262 and 263, and you have 331 positions for Yellowknife and 122 for the rest, the regions and the small communities. The way it lists it is North Slave as 246 and headquarters as 85, but very deceiving the way all the booklets that we've been receiving right from the beginning, since I started here; 246 for North Slave and 85 for headquarters, that's 331 positions in this area. Wow, that's a lot of positions.
The ministry used the term "sharing" in a previous reply. Sharing is extremely important when it comes to the wealth of the Northwest Territories. We depend on government positions in the smaller communities and regions, also. At some point, there has to be either more positions developed for the outlying regions and for the small communities. I, too, agree that the Integrated Case Management program is a great program. That's why I said that, if we don't get at least one position in Fort Smith and one in Inuvik, then I'm not going to be voting for the budget. I firmly believe that we have to start somewhere, and I don't see us doing that.
My question is: evaluations are great. I'm sure the evaluation of the integrated case management program had a great evaluation because terms and conditions that are referenced in an evaluation are usually provided by the department, and you know what the outcome is going to be. I like the outcome, but I really would like an outcome, too, for the region of people that I represent in Thebacha. As we should also look after the Inuvik region, for a start. Do you believe in decentralizing some of these programs that are all offered here? I want to know your answer to that.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What I might personally feel or believe is not what should win the day, it's what's best for the Department of Justice, acting as one of the departments in the GNWT.
Mr. Chair, there are three large correctional facilities that ultimately wind up fulfilling the majority of the human resources components. One is here in Yellowknife, one is in Hay River, and one is in Fort Smith. That's the largest component of human resources within the Department of Justice. The other large component is the legal division, which includes a large staffing component that is here in Yellowknife and serves all the departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories, largely here within Yellowknife. There are challenges, certainly, with not going to be building any new correctional facilities in the imminent future. Indeed, there are empty spaces in the ones that we have, fortunately. It is, as I believe, and I've been instructed, the mandate for our all of us to consistently look for opportunities when there are new positions and new programs being created to consistently look for those opportunities to be located in positions elsewhere, outside of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Just want to make a comment here. I've just got to remind Members is that we have moved past the general comments and we're in pages 262 to 265. As well, asking opinions are not in orders, anything directed to the Minister should be through the Chair. Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll remember that. I'm just wondering, you say that 55 percent of the clients are from Yellowknife or northern. How many people are 55 percent?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That number was derived from a range, looking at 248 active participants. It would be roughly about 130 or so. That's just me making a guess without a calculator. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Member for Thebacha.
I want to get back to this whole integrated case management program. It's a void in the communities, and I'm just wondering if the Minister would consider ensuring that the region of Fort Smith and Inuvik will get a position also, because it is void in the community for this program that is required in the community and for the region.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would love to see integrated case management rolled out everywhere. I am a tremendous supporter of this program. Realistically, it is not going to be within the budget that there currently is to establish new offices with these kinds of services in different communities. It's not just a question of the individual human being, but of a support team. Within the integrated case management office and services, there is a certain level of capacity and knowledge that's been built up within the team that exists here. Again, it wouldn't be quite so simple as to take a person and just say that they will be out somewhere else. That said, Mr. Chair, I am committed to finding some solutions. Certainly, over the next fiscal year, within the current budget that's being proposed, to find ways to have the ICM workers that we have here in Yellowknife perhaps better with the GSO offices that exist elsewhere in the other communities. That is a centralized feature that's available to a lot of the communities, although acknowledging not all of them, but it is available in a lot of the communities. There may well be ways that we can better support the collaborative services between these different departments that offer these services, ICM under Justice and then the GSO offices. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.
I just want to remind the Minister that there are a lot of qualified people in other communities, also, besides Yellowknife, and just doing something a little bit differently to ensure that we get the same service as the people of Yellowknife is essential. I think we are not asking for very much. It's a right. We live in the same area. We have this mandate, and I honestly feel that I want you to know that you agree with me, that there are qualified people all over the territories, not only Fort Smith, Inuvik, Yellowknife. The smaller communities have qualified people. Correct?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Mr. Chair, I believe that the Northwest Territories is full of incredibly qualified people across all of our communities, who can contribute tremendous things to the GNWT and to their communities in a variety of capacities.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha, no further questions. Any further questions? Member for Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Chair. [Translation] Regarding community justice and the RCMP, I would like to ask the Minister a question. The past couple of years, we have been advocating for Aboriginal policing, so I want to ask a question regarding that. [Translation ends]
Community justice and policing, I know that there has been training in the past because I have been involved as the Minister of Justice of the day. We have had a successful outcome training an individual to become almost a full-fledged RCMP officer, without investigation. They are from Hay River, your community. We are obviously a huge supporter of that process. Has there been other training pertaining to Aboriginal policing since then, and how many have we graduated, Mr. Chair? Masi.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It may be that the Member is referencing the special constable program. The special constable program was and is a program that is run under the RCMP. In general, although under the territorial police financing agreement there is a contribution that is made towards funding of training for the RCMP, the Department of Justice in the Northwest Territories does not otherwise have direct control over the different training programs that are offered by the RCMP. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Chair. Usually, the RCMP "G" Division would inquire or talk about recruitment process, and they want to recruit people from the communities. Obviously, that requires training, and we, as a Department of Justice, need to be proactive. Because we talk about money, we can identify funds towards that to train our own people to become full-fledged RCMP officers. We can't always say it's "G" Division, that they approve, that they have to come up with the training requirements, training funding. We have to be proactive, as the justice department, to move forward, to say we want to set the mandate target within five years to produce 20 full-fledged officers. That should be one of the targets. We do not have that. We talk about training here and there. We produced one that I know of out of Hay River. He is still an officer right now, which I am very proud of. Mr. Chair, those are some of the commitments I would like to hear from the Minister going forward, obviously working with the chief commanding officer, if this is something that she is willing to meet with "G" Division, if it's to discuss further training opportunities within Northwest Territories? Masi.
