Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My first question is just on the First Nations policing. So in March 2024, the Office of the Auditor General issued a performance audit on the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program. The audit found that Public Safety Canada and the RCMP have not worked in partnership with Indigenous communities to provide equitable access to policing services, nor to deliver tailored policing services. So significant concerns exist around whether requirements set out in policing agreements are being met and whether the program is achieving its intended results. My first question is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions on page 308, the offender reintegration program, I notice the budget is not changing year over year here. Page 206 of the business plan -- I'll just give you guys a second to find it.

So on page 206 of the business plan, it speaks to a mandate commitment ensuring that policies and programs are designed and renewed with a trauma-informed, antiracist, and cultural safety lens. So corrections programming that supports offender rehabilitation and reintegration back into their home communities. The measure is number of offenders completing programming. The target...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn't hear an explicit commitment to sit down with the boards. I would encourage the Minister that simply sitting down and having a discussion is all I'm asking for at this point.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister have a response to the board's letter to share with the House today recognizing the letter did just come in, but I just wanted to ask the question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the previous sitting of this Assembly, I spoke to the problem of lack of clarity in the NWT waters regulations and the issues this problem is causing in our regulatory system. I spoke to arguments which had been made during a review of this issue which noted that amendments to the regs could help to alleviate some longstanding issues with relation to predictability, expediency, and fairness in the system.

On February 28th, I questioned the Minister on this, and he suggested these issues could be solved through interpretation of the regulations as opposed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, you know, I think we've got a big budget to get through here. I'm not going to belabour this point. I do appreciate the Minister acknowledging the problem. I do want to see the department, you know, actively working on finding solutions, trying things. You know, we've talked a lot in the business plan about taking risks, breaking status quo. You know, don't be afraid to try things. And if it's not working, try something else. I can just commit to continuing to keep the pressure on as long as I'm hearing from constituents about these ongoing issues.

Mr. Chair...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'll keep my comments relatively minimal but I just had a few things to say that I felt were -- did fall better under general comments than anywhere else. And so I just wanted to say a few things.

Aside from the need for some specific measurables, which I've been speaking to kind of over and over again when it comes to business plans and, you know, we covered with the Premier in the previous department, but I do want to see us looking and shifting towards outcome-oriented targets in any of the business plans, and I apply that to health also. But I will say that I think...

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. My next question is on page 208 of the business plan. There's definitely a lot of comments about this in opening comments from Members. There's a plan to kind of bring forward a new territorial crime unit within the RCMP G-division to disrupt illicit drug supply. And so, yeah, my question isn't so much -- how do I put this? So I guess bottom line is what I'm asking is what evidence has the department used to inform the approach of kind of increasing policing services in response to this? And, you know, I would just note that there was some comments earlier that --...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yeah, just in response to that I would just say, I mean, I mentioned it already, but I think something along the lines of reduced recidivism rates or success rates, let's track the outcome that we're searching for, maybe set a goal, and that can be a better target than simply stating that we're going to deliver high quality programming. I think that's kind of a baseline expectation. So that's my comments on this item. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm certainly happy to hear that from the Minister. Thank you to the Minister for the answer. I am happy to hear that the Minister and Cabinet are carefully considering the recommendations.

Mr. Speaker, is the Minister able to give us a timeline for when we can expect a response to the recommendations brought forward?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke to a letter sent by the land and water boards to the Ministers of ECE and the federal minister. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister open to coming to the table to meet with the boards as they have requested? Thank you.