Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are to the Minister responsible for the Department of Justice and are a follow-up on my Member’s statement.
I talked about V-Day North today, where a local organization over the last two years has raised $25,000 to help increase awareness on violence against women and also to help break the cycles of violence in the Northwest Territories. Clearly, prevention and treatment are critical to helping break the cycle of violence. To that end, V-Day North has actually asked me to ask the Minister of Justice today: what is the Department of Justice doing to help victims break this cycle of violence here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Through our consultation with the communities and also our partners with various organizations such as the RCMP and NGOs and other organizations and interdepartmental as well, we provide various programs. One of our priorities, of course, is prevention and preventive measures, and also the Member referred to the treatment, how we can have a program in place that those individuals, the victims who are seeking out some sort of support from our organizations in the Government of the Northwest Territories. Through that, there have been some programs such as I just highlighted today in my Minister’s statement, the Victim Notification Program that’s going to be rolled out, the program for men that’s going to be rolled out, we’re hoping, this fall, and also Domestic Violence Treatment Option Court, which is scheduled to be rolled out this month as well. Those are just some of the captions of the programs that we deliver to develop a preventative measurement in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
I listened, with interest, to the Minister’s statement today and I’m very happy that this Victim Notification Program is going to be implemented. I didn’t catch the title, but it’s the Domestic Violence Treatment Option Court that’s going to be rolled out later this year. Can the Minister tell us how that is intended to help break the cycle of violence? What is the value in that program in breaking that cycle? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Domestic Family Violence Treatment Option Court Program has been developed through the court proceedings and it has the involvement of a chief judge, Chief Judge Gorin, Judge Gagnon. The Department of Justice, my department, is working closely with them. The Public Prosecution of Canada, the RCMP and the defence bar are the parties that are involved in developing this program. The program will be delivered here in Yellowknife, working closely with the offenders and also the low-risk offenders.
Mr. Speaker, we feel that this is a great opportunity to work within the court system that will provide some sort of a preventive measure. Those individuals that are going through the court proceedings, certainly we don’t want them to come back to face those crimes again. Again, this is just one of those programs that we’re going to be rolling out this month and we’re looking forward to successful results, based on the discussions that we’ve had.
Thanks to the Minister for that. Is this program, the Domestic Violence Treatment Option, starting off as a pilot or is it a fully established program? The Minister did say that it’s going to be rolled out here in Yellowknife. Violence doesn’t just occur in Yellowknife. Can we expect to see this program rolled out into other communities throughout the Northwest Territories so that we can get some people who are committing these violent acts the treatment and the support they need to break this cycle of violence? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this program, as I stated, will be rolled out this month. It will be a program for the Northwest Territories that will be delivered here in the capital of the Northwest Territories. At the same time, I did commit to the standing committee, when I presented to them on this specific program, that one of our goals is to deliver this into the regions outside the Yellowknife jurisdiction and potentially going into the communities. That will take some time, Mr. Speaker, but that’s one of our goals as the department, that we want to roll out the program into the regions. The communities will be offset, covered in that respect. Mahsi.
Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward, like I said, to seeing the results of this program. It sounds good. Between that and the Victim Notification Program, I think some good work has really been done in the department. But as I talked in my statement, the V-Day North has been rolling money into the community to help break the cycles of violence and one of the organizations that they have been giving some money to help them break that cycle of violence is the Centre for Northern Families. I know that many departments in this government are supporting the Centre for Northern Families in different ways and I know that there are some difficulties there. I’m wondering what, if any, money the Department of Justice is flowing to the Centre for Northern Families to help them break this cycle of family violence and what this department could do to support the Centre for Northern Families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Member is correct that a number of departments are providing funding to the Centre for Northern Families. ECE, Health and Social Services, NWT Housing Corporation and the Executive provide just over $600,000 to deliver programs and services such as the Early Childhood Program in different areas, outreach workers and the shelter funding, emergency shelter. Within the Justice department, through community justice programming, we are going through the review or programming of the dollars that are being contributed to the communities. We have to work with the organizations such as the community government or the band council. Through that venue, there’s money available. Again, there are other possible funds that may be available to various organizations. I can provide some of the programming that we may have available to the organizations. Mahsi.
The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
