Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are actually to the Premier. I would ask the Minister responsible for the Department of Justice or the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, but I think my questions combine both of those departments.
Today I made a statement about equal and shared parenting. Within the GNWT I think it’s important that we support equal and shared parenting. It’s in the best interests of the children, which is a clear tie to our strategic plan. First, I’ll focus a little bit on justice and then focus on health.
First, on justice. Within the current court system around divorce of parents it’s very adversarial, very confrontational. It’s in our best interests as a territory to support mediation and avenues within the justice system to encourage parents to talk rather than go through the process.
I was wondering if I can get the Premier to commit to work with the Department of Justice and have the Department of Justice and the Department of Health work together on a process that supports equal and shared parenting, especially around the court system and the divorce process.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, the best scenario would be that divorce didn’t happen and that families stayed together. Unfortunately, as the Member has pointed out, the realities are that there are divorces. The nature of divorce within families can be very difficult indeed and test all family members, especially the children. We have to recognize this first, I guess.
After that the recognition is with the judicial system. We as the Government of the Northwest Territories and Members of this Assembly will enact laws that become the practice, but it is the judicial branch that will in fact enforce and lay down the law, in that sense, and how it is interpreted. We feel, through the Department of Justice, that our legislation in place today doesn’t set a bias, but when you do hear most of the news out there, as the Member has pointed out, there is rarely discussion about men in family situations and what happens. We are prepared to sit down and look at avenues, as a Legislature, as to what can be done in light of trends in Canada. Just for the record, as we reviewed our family law statutes, there is no wording or anything that is slanted or genderbiased in any way.
Mr. Speaker, this is why I was asking the Premier. I agree with what he has said. At the same time, I think it would be important for this government to work on having parents who are going through crisis and divorce avoid the court system completely. This is where the justice system can actually come in by requiring that parents who are going through divorce go through mediation. This is why I suggested that the Premier provide the answer rather than Health and Social Services or Justice. I believe it’s going to take real collaboration and partnership for those two organizations to work together to offer parents mediation before they go into the court system, which is what the court system is today.
I was wondering, again, if I can get a commitment from the Premier to work with the Department of Health and Social Services and work with the Department of Justice to establish a clear mediation process that will encourage parents to find reasonable solutions and maintain equal and shared custody in the best interests of our youth.
Mr. Speaker, in light of the new direction we’ve been taking as the 16th Assembly to break down the barriers and stovepipes between departments and work together to try and enhance the family and the situations that families fall under, that is something we would support. Yes, I know the departments of Justice and Health and Social Services work together. This will be another area that they can, as they have in the past, look to see how they can continue to offer a service to all family members to ensure that we have a fair system.
