Thank you. And I think I misspoke here. I believe the Sambaa K'e program was extended until 2024. But this money is intended to go back out to communities. I can ask do we have any more information on that? I think I said it all. Thanks.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm concerned about this one in the sense that and I know that the Minister and I have spoken both on the floor of the House and outside of the House in regards to the men's healing program. When we first started this Assembly, the men's it used to be the men's A New Day program. It transitioned from the way that it once ran and I'm not going to open that box again into the men's healing fund in the life of this Assembly. My concern is that what was once a much broader program is now a targeted program.
And my concern is that it is potentially serving less people of the territory in the way it's currently being run with the budget that it's currently being run with. And my concern too in that is that are we, at the end of the day, kind of losing traction that we already have on a call to action from the MMIWG Calls for Justice. Calls for Justice 7.3, calls for programming for Indigenous healing programming, sorry, for Indigenous boys and men. And so I'm wondering what the intent is with this program to be able to serve more communities in the territory. We have 33 communities, and we have a number of people who need access to healing programs. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you. And so earlier I stated there was no increase or decrease. There is a $5,000 increase to this line item due to our support for NGOs or organizations who are facing inflationary pressures. The one agreement that will be expiring is for $12,000, and so that $12,000 plus the $5,000 that $17,000 that will be available for an organization to apply for to provide some of these programming. I know it's not a lot, but we are trying to get every penny out the door.
So the program used to be when this fund funded A New Day program, that was exclusive to Yellowknife essentially. So we have moved out to the communities, and we are providing Indigenous governments with primarily Indigenous governments with this funding to run their own programs. From what I've seen so far, and these are still very early days for these programs, they seem to be very tailored to those communities. So I am happy with the way things are going at this point. I would love to see this expand and like I'd like to see a number of our programs expanded, but we don't have a plan right now to expand this or to increase this budget significantly enough to replicate this in more communities. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No. And I appreciate the direction providing communities with the autonomy of being able to decide what their own program looks like and what is best in a communitydriven manner. I agree with that and appreciate that and I, you know, look forward to hearing some success stories from these programs. My concern is not about how the department is running the program. My concern is strictly in regards to who has access to that program. And, you know, running a program like this in five communities out of 33 and then having $17,000 left over for 28 additional communities is not realistic of the needs of this territory. I'm wondering, given that this key activity had the highest unspent portion of dollars, if justice is looking at being able to redirect some of those unspent dollars that seem to occur in this key activity to expanding the Men's A New Day program. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you. So the Department of Justice rarely has any unspent funds. We have a couple large divisions or contracts that generally eat up all of our excess funds. So if I had excess funds to put into certain things, I would do that, but that's generally not the situation here with Justice. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So we sit here and we go through key activity after key activity as to, you know, where money's going to go and then, you know, later on as the dust settles and we look at public accounts, we see how dollars are actually spent. And one of the things that was noted is that the community justice key activity had the was the program with the highest sum of budgeted money that went under spent. And so how then does the Department of Justice identify how they're going to reallocate those dollars within their department? So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to what process they follow to prioritize those items. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you. So during COVID, a number of communities had difficulty spending their funds. So that could be the reason for the surpluses that the Member is talking about but we do offer the opportunity to carry that over if they are unspent. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am going to wait for questions on additional key activities. Thank you.
All right. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I was thinking whether I should put my hand up. Anyways, one thing that I think that we all noticed in the last several years now is the increase in drug use and drugs coming into the Northwest Territories. And we do have a, you know, a gun and gang violence action fund. Has there been any I guess, has there been any thought put into maybe doing something similar with respect to drug trafficking and transporting across the border or is that something that's included there somewhere? Thank you.
Minister of Justice.
Thank you. So those are there's definitely connections there. I know that the provider in Hay River who receives who had received funding under this has worked with those individuals who are in that world. But the initiatives like the Member is talking about would be undertaken by the RCMP as opposed to community justice necessarily. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I ask that because every once in a while somebody will send me a picture of somebody sitting there with a bunch of 20s, big piles of it, on their lap so I think it's important that we do something or we have something in place and, you know, look at new ways because you look at the programs we have and the number of people that are being incarcerated and, again, it falls back to addictions I think. So I guess just more of a comment there. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions or comments under this section? All right. So please turn to page 299, Justice, community justice, operations expenditure summary, 20232024 Main Estimates, $6,411,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. We will now move to page 303, corrections, with information items on page 304 and 305. Questions? Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I wanted to ask about the unchanged proportion of offender reintegration program. This line item, my understanding, remains at $179,000. I'm wondering if the Minister can provide a little bit more information about what this line item actually funds. Is it just in salaries? Is it specific to the costs of reintegration in society? I am wondering if the Minister can provide more information there, please.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you. I'd like to hand it to Mr. Bancroft.
Thank you Mr. Bancroft.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The offender reintegration contribution funding, like the Member said, has been unspent but the budget remains constant. This is out of the South Mackenzie therapeutic community. That's where this funding is based out of. And as part of the South Mackenzie therapeutic community model, which came online in November of 2021, we were to offer reintegration funding to community organizations to assist with their offenders coming back into the community. That's been our process. To get to that point, due partly to our low population count at SMTC, and along with that there are some very last phases to be implemented alongside John Howard Society. And this contribution of funding is part of that last implementation that they're actually up here right now implementing the policies surrounding this. Thank you, Madam.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, where do the like, is it out of this pocket of money then that dollars, for example, for support with housing people on release would come from? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you. So it is to provide funding to people who are being released to reintegrate into their community. So that is one example of how the money could be used. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my understanding is that there are staff within Justice that will work with people to secure housing in order to step in and stop the cycle of corrections to homelessness back to corrections back to homelessness. And so if this is what is supporting people through that fund for housing and homelessness, I'm wondering how the $179,000 actually funds that process? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
I'm sorry, if the Member could repeat the question; I didn't quite catch the end.
Can you repeat your question, Member for Kam Lake.
I can be way more specific. Thank you, Madam Chair. How much does it actually cost to reintegrate offenders into our communities in the Northwest Territories, because I'm not sure that $179,000 actually accomplishes what we're setting out to accomplish. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's a big question. I'm not sure if I can put a price tag on how much it costs to reintegrate an offender. There's the practical considerations of depending on where the person is going back to. So if you're going back to Sachs Harbour, things are going to be more costly than if you're going to somewhere like Fort Smith. And because we've had relatively low numbers and the program is still relatively new, I can't provide an average cost or anything like that to the Member yet. But I'd be happy to ensure that the department does that work so that the next time the department is up here, there could be more information for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my concern is that this funding pot here is not actually providing people with the or maybe, sorry, let me rephrase that. This funding pot is not providing the department with the tools that it needs in order to stop the cycle between homelessness and incarceration. And I understand that there's programming involved in that, it's not just housing, but I don't think that this funding pot actually helps people access stable housing. And so if it's simply housing that people are looking for what I'm okay. People are leaving our correctional facilities and they are going back to the street straight from there. If we have a team of people who are responsible for finding housing, is this enough money for Justice to be able to actually help people access that housing when they leave corrections?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. So for a while there, there was very few people going through the therapeutic community. I think there's four or five right now. And so these are relatively low numbers. This is not a fund for everyone who is incarcerated. It is only for those people going through the therapeutic community. And so far, we haven't seen indication that we need to increase it. But as we have more experience, we'll be able to make that determination. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Is there a funding pot that supports people who are leaving incarceration from our other correctional facilities, for example, North Slave correctional centre here in Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you. I'd like to hand it to the deputy minister.
Thank you. Deputy minister Doolittle.
