Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I spoke of impact of the proposed cuts to Community Justice committee funding. The elimination of a court worker position will affect the delivery of justice in my community of Tuktoyaktuk.
Can the Minister of Justice inform this Assembly on whether his department still has any focus on Justice activities at the community level?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly for our Justice Department and also the Government of the Northwest Territories, one of the focuses is to deliver programs to the communities, the regions. We will continue to do so. Wherever we need to enhance our programs, we certainly are listening to the people of the North. That’s one area we will be focusing on as the Justice Department.
I think the department should have considered cuts to the headquarters level before they started touching programs at the community level and regional level.
Can the Minister inform this Assembly as to whether he will consider increasing funding that’s available for the Community Justice committees?
I think that is one of the recommendations brought forward by the Committee of the Whole, and certainly we will consider looking at those recommendations. Also, we do have a three-year time span as part of our business planning. We have highlighted where we can enhance and improve our program delivery into the communities. Those will be taken into consideration.
That’s really good to hear. Would the department seriously consider re-establishing my court worker in the community of Tuktoyaktuk?
We will consider all the recommendations that were brought forward to our Justice Department.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
