Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to supporting and providing employment opportunities to northern students and graduates. As part of this commitment, the Department of Finance manages programs and initiatives aimed at creating employment opportunities for northern students and at helping to provide diverse work experiences for young people.

Part of the success of these programs depends on people knowing about them in order to access them. The Department of Finance wants to improve our communication about all available programs, and to set an example, I will...

It certainly is the desire of Cabinet, as I hope the Members are seeing, to be more consultative in our approach. There are two different streams we have spoken about; firstly, more public consultation and developing that process for all regulations generally to determine which ones go through that process and which ones don't, as well as items that go through the intergovernmental council, and that may be subject to somewhat different processes. Certainly, once there is a stage for which regulations should receive general public consultation, I would commit to taking that through to committee...

This topic has certainly come up in front of Cabinet, and it is one that has already come up in terms of the Department of Justice taking a lead and being aware that this is something where we can do better. As far as what that will look like, at the present time I can't say, but it is our intention that we can have a better system in place to determine, as I said earlier, which regulations should be subject to public consultation, what that process would look like. It is our intention to build that in so that it's more clear, so that the public knows, so that this House will know, which...

Mr. Speaker, I did not speak specifically to co-drafting in terms of how that would look and what commitments might be made. Quite frankly, the reason is that, if I make a commitment in this House, I am going to take it very seriously, and I understand that co-drafting and the involvement of the Indigenous governments, the involvement of the intergovernmental council, involves EIA, involves Cabinet, involves more than just the Department of Justice, and so I was not prepared to stand up and make that specific commitment here. Nevertheless, I can certainly commit to working with standing...

Again, that has also come up at Cabinet, that has also come up in the Department of Justice, and, similarly, there are obligations within the devolution process to the intergovernmental council to ensure that, in some circumstances, there will be a process that engages those partners. That protocol is also being worked on, and so, again, I am in the same situation of, while I do not have a specific that I can provide to the Member, I can assure the Member that that is in progress and it is actively being worked on right now to develop some things so we have some standards in place and so there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regulations cover a wide breadth and variety of different types of topics. There is a variety that range from items that are fairly technical, some that are community-specific; in some cases, consultation is built into the legislation itself, so, no, there is not a single set standard at present in terms of how regulations are drafted in the Northwest Territories.

I have no doubt that any department would like to see more funds. It would certainly make the work easier. At the same time, am I confident that there is enough ability and enough capacity within the Department of Justice to address this? Mr. Speaker, I would say yes. When the story broke nationally about the rates of incarceration of Indigenous people, I met immediately with senior members from the Justice Department, and they are beginning to consider what things we can do, within our control, to affect the over-incarceration of Indigenous people.

It will be a cross-government issue that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We currently have programs in place between the Correctional Service working inside our incarceration facilities and with communities to ensure that individuals have a reintegration plan before they go into the community, and that is meant to be one of the key ways in which we are hoping to assist individuals to not reoffend.

In addition, of course, this is something that involves partnerships throughout all of government to ensure that people have the right supports in their communities so that they can continue to live lives that are healthy when they are out of the...

There are fortunately a number of initiatives that I can speak to. There certainly is significant effort within corrections to have Indigenous cultural safety training for all staff. There are efforts to have Aboriginal liaisons available to all individuals within the correctional system. There is, in addition to that, a number of initiatives to ensure that there are court workers available in the communities and to ensure that police priorities also include cultural safety.

All that said, Mr. Speaker, I am aware that more still needs to be done, and so I certainly am alive to that and intend...

As all of my colleagues here know, over-incarceration of Indigenous people was not an express priority that we noted for the Members of the 19th Assembly. Nevertheless, I have already stated publicly that this is a priority for me personally. It is an issue that I have personally been engaged on for many years, and I can't imagine that anyone who knew me in my past life would expect me to come into this House and not see this as a personal priority. With that, Mr. Speaker, I would certainly like to assure that, doing my part, as Minister of Justice, and the Department of Justice of the...