Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are following up on my Member’s statement today and they’re directed to the Minister of Justice. So my first question is: In some of our earliest briefings as the 17th Assembly, we were alerted to the work that the Department of Justice was doing to really list the anticipated costs of the proposed Omnibus Bill C-10, Government of Canada. So I’m looking to the Minister of Justice to find out what those costs are. When will he be bringing that to committee, or is it ready now? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re working on that right now. We’re very interested to actually identify what those costs are and break them down so that they’re reasonable. Some of the costs are easier to identify. The cost of facilities is certainly an easier cost to come up with, but when it actually comes down to how much it’s going to cost for legal aid and how much it’s going to cost for court time, or even how much it’s going to cost in the facilities itself, because we actually have to do an analysis of the actual cases that have gone through the system and try and figure out how the new act is going to affect it. So we’re working on it. I’ll commit to getting something to the Minister in the next two months on those costs. I’m interested in seeing them as much as the Member. Thank you.
Thanks for the response from the Minister. Obviously we’d need these costs now if we’re going to use them in leveraging further assistance and working with other jurisdictions. Obviously other jurisdictions are not waiting until they have dotted all the i’s and crossed the t’s. By then it will be too late, this legislation will be in place and we’ll be faced with the immediate ramifications. So what is the Minister doing to use what information we do have and work with other jurisdictions, especially northern jurisdictions, who clearly recognize the costs that are accruing as a result of this legislation? What does he see is the time frame here? Thank you.
Thank you. The department in no way shape or form is waiting for these costs to start doing some work. We recognize that some work needs to be done. The government is focused on trying to find ways to keep people out of the justice system completely. We want to focus on alternatives and diversions. One of the things that we’re doing is we’re talking to other jurisdictions about the types of courts they have put in place, such as mental health courts, such as alcohol treatment courts or addictions courts. Those are things that we need to explore as a way to divert people out of the justice system completely. We’re also looking at working with the Minister of Health and Social Services, who is focused on doing some prevention here in the Northwest Territories. We all know that alcohol is one of the driving factors of crime in the Northwest Territories and we need to start addressing that. So we are working that.
With respect to courts here in the Northwest Territories, we have pulled together a working group of departments – Justice, Education, Culture and Employment, Health and Social Services and MACA – to start going through options that are available to us, such as the diversion courts and collaborative practice working together with the departments. So there are things that we’re doing. We recognize the areas that we need to work on and we’re starting to make some progress in that direction. We will obviously keep committee informed as we continue. Thank you.
Thank you. The Minister jumped ahead to some of my other questions here. My question had been what is the Minister doing to work with other jurisdictions, particularly northern jurisdictions to ramp up the effort to get assistance from the federal government on the impacts that we know are going to accrue, although we haven’t dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s yet? So perhaps before I can go on to the subject that the Minister raised here, also an important one, perhaps he could answer that question. Thank you.
Thank you. I recently attended the F/T/P meetings in PEI with the Ministers of Justice and I did have an opportunity to sit down with the other two Ministers from the other two provinces and we had the same issues and concerns about Bill C-10. We’re all being affected slightly different because of different realities. Nunavut’s got a bigger problem because they actually have no capacity in their jails whereas here in the Northwest Territories we do have capacity and the Yukon just built a new facility, but the impacts of the bill are going to be the same in many ways. So we have agreed to work together. We are going to be meeting as Ministers on a regular basis and having our staff work together on similar issues across the three territories so that when we approach Ottawa we can approach it as a united front rather than three unique individuals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that’s news to me and that’s certainly not what I hear from the corrections folks and the constituents that I deal with, that we have room in our jails, but I’m glad to hear that. Perhaps I could ask the Minister to provide that information to committee.
I just want to follow up now on the preventative side. I’ve been hearing for a long time what the Minister has said. We’re working on that. Now I’m looking for some real substance. I heard the Minister say a couple of months from now. I guess that means we have to wait another couple months, but let’s make sure we hit that target. Perhaps my last question is just some information so I have the right perspective on timing here. When do we anticipate that the Bill C-10 omnibus bill would be implemented, and perhaps it’s a staged thing given the size of the bill?
The two-month commitment was on the costing. I’d like to see that costing information as much as the Member and I’m committed to getting that information out. It is taking longer than I’d like, but it does take a little bit of time to do the level of analysis required.
As I’ve indicated, that doesn’t stop us from doing the work. We have pulled together a committee to begin the work on alternatives and diversions, and it’s not just in the courts. We’d like to divert people before they even enter the justice system. That includes working with the RCMP. I’ve had a number of discussions with the superintendent here in the Northwest Territories about how we can work with the RCMP to divert right at the front lines. There are things getting done and I will update committee on the work of the working committee as it’s going.
With respect to when the bill is going to be implemented, that was one of the questions that came up. All the jurisdictions in this country are asking for time and at the meeting with the federal, provincial and territorial Ministers, the federal Minister did indicate that the rollout of this bill would be over time, that they are recognizing some of the challenges that we’re facing and they’re going to roll out the nine different pieces of legislation at different times. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the timing for the criminal components or the youth components are going to be, but when I know I will let the Member and committee know for sure.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
