Alfred Moses

Mr. Speaker, I’m glad to hear that he did see the report, possibly. I didn’t really get a concrete answer there, but he did mention PTR and inclusive schooling.

In terms of recommendations, what is his department doing to address those recommendations made from the program review office which is supposed to make our programs and services in the Government of the Northwest Territories more efficient and more effective in spending our dollars? What is the department doing to act on the recommendations from the program review office that he said his office has received? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take the opportunity to welcome the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council, Mr. Robert Alexie Jr., as well as the chief operating officer, Mr. Fred Koe. Welcome, enjoy the proceedings. I’d also like to make a special welcome to Gayla Meredith, the president of the NWTTA. It is Education Week and I hope the campaign and everything is going great this week.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just following up on the homelessness initiatives, I just want to ask the Minister if there was any funding moving forward for the day shelter that we have in Inuvik to try to keep its doors open longer during the winter months when it does get pretty cold out there, and the people who are accessing the day shelter are having to leave the day shelter because they can’t operate it during the day because they don’t have the funding. I just want to ask if there are any dollars that would be allocated so the doors could be open, specifically during the winter months when it’s...

Just for an example, our Not Us! Committee in Inuvik invited all RCMP staff to a family night. We introduced them to the community and they engaged and played board games, had discussions, sat down, had tea and coffee with the residents of the community. It really builds that strength and partnership and relationship within our community so that we feel comfortable talking to them and they feel comfortable talking to us. It’s been very helpful.

A while back when I was doing health promotion, we had a program with the coroner’s office where the coroner went into the schools and did an education...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to continue with questions for the Minister of Justice here. In his statement he mentioned that one of our goals is sustainable, vibrant and safe communities. We also have to make that the focus of the schools. He talked about the community policing plan. I just want to ask the Minister of Justice in his community policing plan if, in the plan itself, the RCMP are asked to go into the school and be a presence in the schools, having them make sure that our teachers and students are safe and have that assurance of having their presence there. Is that part of the...

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to seeing reports on how successful this program is. Is the Minister going to be doing a report on this Not Us! program? If so, when will the standing committee see the report on the Not Us! program and the effectiveness of this program, as I am sure did help in a lot of the statements that the Minister said earlier? Will we be seeing a report? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. I want to commend him and the work that his community have been doing in terms of making all of these drug busts and bootlegging busts in the communities; actually, more involved with the Not Us! campaign and empowering our residents to speak up in the communities and get justice where it needs to be. I commend the hard work that the department is doing with this program. Specifically to the Not Us! program, I believe it is probably in its third year now of running.

I just want to ask the Minister, with the success of...

Would the Minister be willing to look at the dollars that were allocated and rather than just the O and M costs, be looking at providing more funding, specifically over the winter months when these guys are accessing the day shelter so they are able to spend the days in the day shelter, so they can keep their doors open. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the efforts of committee and the work that we have been doing going through the budget dialogue process and looking at putting dollars where we feel that has not been looked at or supported in quite a number of years. I think, for the past six years NWT Tourism has been operating on the same budget and doing a really great job in terms of getting out to the markets and other jurisdictions, while at the same time still operating on the second-lowest budget in all of Canada. Even with this little increase that we’re asking for, we appreciate the $600,000 that...

Would the Minister commit to creating a ministerial directive in speaking with the RCMP to make it a priority, and make it mandatory for RCMP to be in the schools and educate the students on what their roles are in the community and in the schools, and create that strong partnership so that our students can speak up, our teachers can speak up, and let RCMP know what some of their concerns are in terms of bullying, violence, and other things that are happening in the school system or on school grounds?