R.J. Simpson

Thank you. The report is expected at the end of this month, I believe. It's a third party, and it is doing everything the Member has asked in the past, looking at not just whether the budget is adequate to operate as is, but considering what's going on in the territory and what a future budget should look like. Thank you.

Thank you. Corrections takes an ongoing improvement approach to the programming, so there is always a thought to what is happening, what we can do better, what needs to be done. In the not-too-distant past, there has been a significant amount of work done on programs for offenders. Perhaps the deputy minister can expand. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The most recent numbers I have, which are a few years old now, it was around 60 percent of the cases involved public housing, but that is going back early in the last Assembly. I am not sure if we have more recent stats. I don't think it would be a stretch to say it's probably the majority, but I will see if the deputy minister might have some information. Thank you.

Thank you. This is where the integrated case management program is found, and what the Member is referring to, I believe, is the integrated service delivery approach, which is an approach to not just delivering services but delivering services, developing policies, developing legislation, and working together as a government as a whole for the benefit of the recipient of those services. Ideally, it should not take more money to do things in a different way if it's just a culture shift, so we do not anticipate increased costs. However, government finds a way sometimes, and so perhaps, there...

Yes. I will hand it off, but I'll just first say that there is federal money. I've been on calls with other federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers, and everyone always asks for more money. There is that lobbying going on, with an understanding that it is expensive. Access to Justice is expensive. In the Northwest Territories, we have probably the most generous legal aid system in Canada, which means it's even more expensive up here. We spend much more proportionately to what we receive from the federal government compared to other jurisdictions. I'd like to hand it to Ms. Bolstad...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 408-19(2): Use of Indigenous Languages in GNWT Workplaces." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's always a challenge to develop legislation. In addition to the people to just sit down and write the legislation, there are some bills that need a lot of consultation before they are ever bills. People have to fly into communities to talk to communities. There is a lot of work and a lot of hours that go into developing these. That being said, we do have the capacity. It's a matter of prioritizing, and so I would just ask that the Member keep down the number of additional requests he is making of the government so that we can prioritize that legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I hope the committees are busy working right now. There is a lot of work to do outside of legislation, despite being the Legislative Assembly by name. Again, any bill that is introduced is subject to Cabinet approval, so I cannot say that a bill will be introduced by this time. However, any member of the public can go and look at the four-year business plans put out by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Every single department lists their legislative initiatives with their proposed dates when they want to introduce the bills. Now, has there been some slippage? Yes, there has, but we...

I, for one, will not forget that, and I remember all of the Member's amendments that made it stretch out until past midnight. However, we did learn from the last Assembly. We have asked departments to give us more realistic timelines for legislation and to be brutally honest and look at themselves in the mirror and say, "Can we get this done at this point?" Right off the bat, we had a more realistic list. We are also using technology to ensure that we can track our legislation better. We are one of the first divisions in the government to start using the APEX Database, which is something that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the beginning of every sitting, I provide the Regular Members of this House with a list of the legislation that is likely to be introduced. This sitting, there was no legislation planned to be introduced. That said, we are hoping to get a couple of bills introduced at some point in this sitting. However, those have to go through Cabinet, so I cannot say whether or not they will happen. Whether or not they are "substantive" according to the Member's definition, I am not sure, but we hope to have some work for them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.