Debates of May 27, 2004 (day 14)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Minister of Justice, the Honourable Charles Dent. Mr. Speaker, I understand that some time ago the Tl'oondih Society had a program for inmates in the North. I wanted to ask the Minister, could he inform the House as to the program and give the House an indication in terms of how the program went with Tl'oondih Healing Society and the inmates from the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Tl'oondih lodge was used in conjunction with corrections. The goal was to run a program that would help offenders reintegrate back into the community through a program that was tied to the land, and the program started I believe in late March and ran for several weeks. The early reports that I have received are that the program was seen as very successful by both the inmates who went through the program and by the staff. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the honourable Minister. I applaud the government for taking an initiative like this to have bush camps out on the land, and run by aboriginal groups or communities. The Tl'oondih Healing Society and staff have made this a successful program. Can the Minister inform the House if a report is going to come out of his department in terms of other specifics we are going to ask about the Tl'oondih Healing Society and the Justice department program? Thank you.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure when we expect the final report. The Tl'oondih Wellness Society is working on that report, and once we have received the report we will review it, meet with them and discuss future options. One of the other things that we are going to be doing though is monitoring the progress of the people who have gone through the program, and how they make out in their home communities over the next months and years. I hope we demonstrate that there has been some long-term success to this program.

Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I was really quite happy when I heard about the Tl'oondih Healing Society and the partnership with the Department of Justice. Is this program going to be considered to be used across the Northwest Territories for other regions or communities that may wish to enter into arrangements similar to the Tl'oondih Healing Society and the Department of Justice in terms of reintegrating our own people back in our communities? The best way, and I applaud the department again, is on the land. The elders have always said to have more of these types of program on the land, and I wanted to thank the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the goal of setting this program up was to find out whether or not it would improve results. So certainly we would look at this as a pilot project. Of course we will have to examine how many inmates there are in the system at any given time who would qualify for this kind of program, and how many programs like it we can run would be somewhat dependent on that. So I can’t predict whether or not there will be opportunities in other regions, or how often we will be able to do it, but certainly we were looking at this as a pilot project and we will want to examine our options for continuing the approach.

Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question to the Minister is could we use the Tl'oondih healing model in the communities for early prevention as a first option for people, rather than sending them to a facility here in Yellowknife? Can we use this type of model in our communities to have them out on the land, rather than having them flown down to the facility here in Yellowknife? I would encourage something like that from this department. Thank you.

Minister of Justice, Minister Dent.

Further Return To Question 159-15(3): Update On The Tl’oondih Healing Society

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has had a number of on-the-land programs available for inmates for quite some time. There has been some problem though finding enough inmates who are interested in taking this approach, or even getting themselves involved. So it hasn’t been one where we’ve had more inmates wanting to do it than we have space. It has been the other way around, unfortunately. I would agree with the Member that this would be a very good approach, and I think that it has a lot of long-term prospects for rehabilitation over straight incarceration, but we have to have the right mix of inmates and people who are prepared to undertake that kind of programming before it can be used. So we certainly encourage it, but it takes full size willingness to see the approach.