Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Justice. It’s in regard to the Aboriginal Court Challenges Program. I’d just like to ask the Minister of Justice, as he’s the person who oversees the program, what type of intake have we had in the program. How is this program being promoted in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We had some intakes into the funding that’s available but there hasn’t really been much interest over the years. We do advertise it. We have it on our website as well. The Aboriginal organizations, if they want to access it, we have on our website the list of criteria, what’s involved, how much money is available. It’s out there.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d like to formally submit a letter to the different Aboriginal organizations and non-Aboriginal organizations in the Northwest Territories to make them aware of this program. Can the Minister personally submit letters to the different appropriate organizations, Aboriginal organizations and non-Aboriginal organizations to make them aware of this program? Will the Minister consider that as an option?
This is an area that we can look at. We can reach out to the communities. It’s on the website but we can contact the communities and regions so that they’ll be aware of it. I just got a note that it’s been accessed 13 times over the last decade. That’s related to the previous question the Member was asking.
I’d like to ask the Minister when the last time an evaluation and assessment was done on the program. Taking into consideration and looking at the dollar amounts that are in there, I believe, looking back over the time, there haven’t been any major changes to the program. I’d like to ask the Minister if they are considering doing an evaluation and assessment of the program to see if there are changes needed to it.
This is an area that we can look at. We need to find out the status of the programming where there’s been access 13 times over the last 10 years. Why is that? The program itself, we as the Department of Justice can look at the overall program.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I’d just like to get some direction from the Minister. I know this is a program for the Northwest Territories but it does require that at one point you can appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada regarding funding. I’d like to know if as part of the review that I put forward to the Minister, if he would also consider reviewing the programs we have and look at the federal programs to see if there’s the possibility of correlating our programs with the federal program in case there are additional resources needed for these type of court challenges, but they can access additional funding through federal programs in conjunction with our program.
We can definitely explore what programs are available to us from the federal perspective. With the Aboriginal Rights Court Challenges Program there is money in place to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. It does exist. The Member is talking about additional, possibly from the federal level, that we’ll definitely explore.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
