Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A question for the Minister of Justice: can the Minister confirm if additional staff are required to be on duty SMCC during this pandemic period, above what was there prior to it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, there is no indication that additional staff are necessary. What we have been doing, though, is certainly working with human resources in the correctional facilities to ensure that all staff are available to be present. The information I have is that, so far, we have had no difficulty in maintaining the services that are required in the correctional facilities.
I have had concerns raised by some of the staff that their leave has been cancelled, and there is starting to be some burn-out. Is your department aware of this?
I have no doubt that there is some burn-out. The correctional facilities across Canada right now, many of them have actually been struck quite significantly by COVID-19. We have been fortunate in the Northwest Territories to not be in that situation, but it is not for lack of tremendous effort put in by the correctional facility staff to undertake their work in a very difficult environment. We are aware that they always work in a challenging environment, and they are working in a particularly challenging environment right now with COVID-19. There are additional requirements for hygiene and cleanliness and sanitation. There are additional requirement for scanning inmates when they enter the facilities. So indeed, yes, we are certainly aware that the situation has been challenging for a lot of the correctional facility workers, as well as any of the essential workers, front-line workers, across departments in the Northwest Territories.
Essentially, Mr. Speaker, I am providing that answer as much from the Department of Finance human resources as I am from Justice, that it is a challenge for front-line workers all across, who are at times having their leaves cancelled because of the nature of the work that they are doing and the need to maintain services. I do not necessarily have a solution for the Member right now, other than to assure him that we are aware.
Yes, I guess we have employees staying at home and probably burning out because it is difficult to be home day after day and trying to work from home. I understand that, as well. However, with respect to SMCC and corrections, what I see, I guess I equate burn-out with a safety issue, as well. How are you going to reconcile those two to ensure that nothing goes sideways in the facilities?
I will take a moment first to just remind all GNWT employees there are quite a number of measures that have been made available to staff for mental wellness. They are available under the "My HR" website. There have been extensive changes made to increase and enhance what is available for all employees, including correctional services employees. Prior to COVID-19, there were efforts under way already between human resources and corrections to start working together to really identify the fact that correction services is a challenged environment for employees and to try to find some solutions going forward. Some of that work has been delayed a little bit with COVID-19, but, really, we are starting to look at what we can do to get back to some of that business and back to doing the things we were under way in. That is certainly one of the areas that I will have to make sure that we are indeed getting back to that important work.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister just commit to taking a look at the SMCC facility? You know, there may not be a lot of employees there who are in that predicament, but there may be a few, and it would be nice to have it addressed sooner than later.
We have three facilities, four if you include the youth facility, separate from the NSCC, and I would certainly commit to taking a look at the mental health resources available specific to corrections workers across all of those facilities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, our time for oral question has expired. We will now take a 10-minute recess and finish up the rest of the session. Thank you.
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