Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my questions today to the Minister of the Department of Justice in regard to the chief coroner’s office and recommendations that do come out of her reports.
I’d just like to ask the Minister, what is his department doing to address the recommendations in this year’s report that was tabled last week but also previous reports that give good recommendations to this House, and what is the department doing to address these?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many of the recommendations contained in coroners’ reports are acted upon, and we continue to work with other departments as necessary. I mean, a lot of the reports reflect alcohol abuse or drug abuse. Those issues are dealt with by the Department of Health and Social Services and we certainly communicate with those departments that are involved as well.
In regard to working with the other departments, are any reports brought to this House or to committees or even a report given back to the coroner’s office on how those recommendations are made, because it’s just hearsay to us when we hear the Minister saying that he’s working with other departments to address these recommendations but we don’t see an action plan, we don’t see any timelines, we don’t see any measurable goals or outcomes.
Can the Minister, I guess, elaborate a little bit further in detail how he’s working with the departments to address these concerns?
Across Canada, similar to the Northwest Territories, coroners’ recommendations are not binding, and we don’t believe they should, in fact, be binding. Making recommendations binding would change the fundamental role of the coroner as we know it. They would have to consider the binding nature of their recommendations before putting them forward. They may limit the kind of recommendations they can make. It would also require them to be very specific so that their recommendations can be followed.
Again, we do work with other departments. As far as a report that is put forward, I don’t believe there is, but I could certainly go back to the department and ask them about that.
I stated in the House before, when we had our last chief coroner’s report that was tabled in the House that it’s more than a report and it’s more than recommendations. We’re talking about people’s lives here. We’re talking about families and relatives and communities that are affected by such incidents as deaths and those kinds of things that are happening in the communities.
Would the Minister be looking to making any kind of amendments to the Coroners Act to ensure recommendations coming out of the chief coroner’s report do in fact become binding and do in fact become legislated? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, across Canada the recommendations contained in coroners’ reports are not binding, and here in the Northwest Territories we feel that they shouldn’t be, in fact, binding. If the recommendations were binding, they’d have, in some cases, some pretty heavy financial practicality issues associated with those recommendations. Again, it would fundamentally change the role of the coroner if we were to make recommendations binding. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. I think when it comes to the costs of a life, you shouldn’t be putting financial implications on decisions that we make in this House moving forward.
As stated earlier, alcohol and drugs is a big factor in a lot of these deaths, whether it’s homicide, whether it’s suicide, whether it’s accidental. I want to know what the department is doing working either itself or, because it’s the chief coroner’s report, maybe they could take the lead in trying to address some type of media layout or some kind of awareness campaign to address the high levels of alcohol and drug use that are related to deaths in the NWT.
Would the Minister be looking at taking the lead on that, since it’s his department that work with the chief coroner’s office? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we do take recommendations that coroners provide us seriously. We do work with other departments. The Member is correct; the prevalence of alcohol and drugs as they relate to sudden deaths here in the Northwest Territories is certainly something that we need to pay attention to. Seven out of the eight suicides last year were alcohol related. So it’s very important that we continue to work with the Department of Health and Social Services on addressing those root causes of alcohol and drug abuse across the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
