Yes, I believe so.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So what's the status of that? Because I know that, like, when coming into this Assembly as well, I was kind of unclear if there was a pause because of COVID or because of evac or all the other unmitigated disasters that had befallen the 19th Assembly. So where are we at with the community safety officer pilot? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And there were it took time to ramp up the program. There was a requirement to find people, to train people, and that's not always a quick task. And so it didn't move as quickly as we would have hoped. Maybe the deputy minister has more information on that. I can hand it to her, maybe not, but we'll try. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we had a pilot program that we started with Fort Liard. We put out an expression of interest, and they were the successful community for a pilot project. It's been extended to March 31st, 2026, due to the delay the Premier was speaking about. We do have a program evaluation that will occur at the end of the term. Extending it gives us more time to collect more data due to that start that often takes time in pilot projects.
We have also received some funding from Public Safety Canada under the FNIPP program which gives us a better cost share ratio. So they have provided us with some funding as well for this program, which is good news. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The money from Public Safety Canada, is that funding that could be expanded, or are they just funding the pilot, or is this a larger or is this a broader initiative that they are providing financing for around community safety officer programs? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you. That funding is for the extension of the program. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. So what's the total expenditure of the program? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you. The budget is $303,000 per year. Thank you.
Thank you. Member to Range Lake.
And how many officers does that fund or positions, I guess, in the community? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. There are two community safety officers. Thanks.
Thank you. The Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program evaluation, what does that entail? Are they engaging will it engage with members of the community as well to get feedback from them in addition to I'll just leave it open ended. Like, what will it evaluate? How will that what's the methodology around the evaluation? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. So they will be looking at the community partnerships and the activities that were undertaken, the number of calls for support, as well as the impact on the RCMP calls for support, and prisoner counts. So I don't have the exact details. I don't have the evaluation framework here, but I would imagine that when you look at things like community partnerships and activities, there's interviews with other groups in the community and things like that. But once that evaluation framework is finalized, we can share that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Thank you to the Premier. This is a really great program, I just wanted to say, and I think it should be I mean, hopefully, the evaluation comes back that it's cost effective and is reducing calls and all the things we want it to do. I know that several years ago now the City of Yellowknife had proposed a similar program. I think it was called the community safety officer program to the government of the day. And there was a concern around funding. I think the conversation was, if we can find the money, then we'll support it.
Is there could this if Yellowknife or a larger centre was interested in a program like this, would there be support from the department now? Because I appreciate that this is a pilot, but I think this is a there's a need for this in just about every community. And it would be interesting to see how it would develop in a larger centre, especially given my colleague from Yellowknife Centre spoke about, like, the need for community policing and getting out of the car and on the street and talking to people, and CSOs seem like a good fit for that model. So is there the potential that this could work in Yellowknife or Hay River or a larger centre? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go over to the Minister.
Thank you. I believe there's potential that it could work in a lot of places, but it's the funding issue that is, I would say, the holdup right now. This is federally funded. And when I last met with the Minister of public safety or I guess the previous time this was discussed, and we did talk about the success of this program understanding there isn't an evaluation yet. And there was interest, and it does appear that the federal government is interested in this. And so we hope that this program, the evaluation will show that it is successful, and then we can move into other communities.
With the Department of Justice, most of the money is allocated to the courts and to the RCMP and to corrections and so anything additional we do, it comes through federal funding for the most part. So that's what it's contingent upon. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. And, yeah, I assume that was the answer but if you need support, please bring it to the standing committee. I'm sure we'll write you a letter.
Switching gears, the Protection against Family Violence Act is scheduled to be updated. Could the Minister speak to what changes are being contemplated by the department? Thank you.
Thank you. I will to go to the Minister.
Thank you. If you could just give me one moment while I turn to that page, thanks.
Thank you. So I don't have a lot of detail on that, but one of the issues that has been identified is who is included in that definition under the Act. And so that's one area that we're looking at. And the other, we're also looking at other amendments. But I can get back to the Members with more information on that specific legislative initiative. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. And I appreciate that we will I mean, it's legislation, it's going to be proposed, we will see it. I just was curious about what is being contemplated because it's not clear in the list of legislative proposals that are currently out.
Well, yeah no, I think I'm good. Thank you. This has been again, I think this is this is good detail in here. There's good programming and support for the men's healing program. I'm glad to see the funding increased and continued to maintain that level. It was something that we looked at very closely in the 18th Assembly, and I'm glad to see it continue here. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is on the descriptions of cost shared agreements. To a large degree, we're dependent on our federal counterpart to assist with resources and if there's such a high change in our society for increased services and in justice, rehabilitation, counselling, those types of related services, is it the department's wishes or are they going to seek further agreements to cover some of the shortfalls that we're experiencing in the area of justice and rehabilitation? Are we going back to the federal government for more money? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are always going to the federal government. The Department of Justice hustles to find agreements, to find pots of money that they can access. And so I wouldn't say we're going back to them, but there is a constant dialogue and there's always not always new agreements but there are a number of agreements. And we do give our two cents to the feds about what we would like to see and what direction we would like to see their agreements go in if it's not one that works for the territory. And as always, I when I speak to the federal Ministers, I say we need ensure that no matter what we're doing, it needs to the feds need to consider the Northwest Territories and our unique context relative to the southern provinces when they're designing programs and allocating funding for programs as well because the per capita allocations don't work for us. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm satisfied with that reply. Mahsi.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Here, gun and gang strategies, okay, 20222023, there's nothing allocated for this fiscal year. It's not in the budget. So I just want to ask the Minister why it's not because we know we have a lot of issues in small communities, and then I'm sure there's a lot of community, you know, Indigenous government and other organizations, they use this money for you know, to help and work with the young people. So it's more of awareness and education program, part of healing. So I just wanted to know why it's not part of this budget this fiscal year.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you. Again, this is another federal program and so we had an agreement with the federal government to receive funding through the Guns and Gang Strategy. The federal government discontinued that strategy but we have recently confirmed that that money is being reprofiled to the same end, but in a different program and so we are awaiting details on that. But we hope to be getting into discussions and signing it as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Monfwi.
Yeah, that's good. Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear. And then what I see here, it's good. You know, there's more money allocated to some of the programs, like men's healing, which is greatly needed, and it's helping a lot of community members in small communities. So I know it's being used well. Even the Victim Assistance Program, it's really helping a lot of communities because I know that we see things happening because of these programs. So I'm glad there is money, you know, there is increase in that budget for this fiscal year. So that's all. It's more of a comment. Thank you.
Thank you. Any other Members want to make a comment? General comments? Okay, no further questions.
Please turn to page 303, Justice, community justice, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, $6,659,000. Does the committee agree? Thank you.
I'll read this out again.
Justice committee, justice operations expenditure summary, 20242025, Main Estimates, $6,759,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. The Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, please rise and report progress.
Thank you. There's a motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and nondebatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
Carried
