David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement from yesterday where I was speaking about the abysmal statistics in the Northwest Territories when it comes to family violence.

Having the highest crime rate in the country and the second highest rate of violent crimes in the nation is not a statistic we should have and it should be an embarrassment for this government. Spousal assault is up 107 percent in four years and there’s a 43 percent increase for sentences in violent crimes in just seven years.

In my opinion, what we can do immediately is to review our programs and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just wondering if the Minister, I know she was answering some questions from Ms. Bisaro about the deficits at the authorities. Yesterday I had asked for correspondence from the department to the authorities, whatever that correspondence is, on instructions on how to deal with deficit. I was hoping the Minister could perhaps give the committee copies of that correspondence. I’d like to see what the department is telling the authorities.

Come the end of March it’s going to be up close to $30 million in accrued deficits around the authorities. I mentioned to the...

I appreciate the response from the deputy minister. I guess, from my perspective, especially the Beaufort-Delta and Stanton are in such dire straits financially, running up big deficits at those two authorities, my fear is that when you throw this on top of everything else, it has the potential to send them spiralling again further into a deficit situation. I’d like to see the department budgeting for… And these are costs that I don’t think would be too hard to even guess at what your costs are going to be. Your costs are going to go up. If you have to repatriate people within 48 hours, it’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I seek the committee’s indulgence to return to 8-21. I just had a couple of questions I wanted to follow up on there. Thank you.

I know the Minister talked about FPT meetings and getting together with his colleagues from across the country. One of the big issues recently that’s come to light is people getting double credit for time served in remand while they’re awaiting a court date. I’d like to ask the Minister if here in the Northwest Territories has our government and the Minister of Justice taken a position on whether or not that’s a good practice to have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to follow up on some of the questions I had earlier for the Minister of Justice. Mr. Speaker, I must start out by saying I have the utmost respect for the judicial system here in the Northwest Territories, but when there is a public outcry about light sentences handed out to violent offenders here in the Northwest Territories, the public has little recourse but to come to their elected officials and state that something is wrong if somebody is killing somebody and getting five years, or if an individual beats up their spouse and gets five months even though...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the things I alluded to in my Member’s statement was the fact that North Slave Correctional Centre is the largest corrections facility we have in the Northwest Territories. Currently it doesn’t have a clinical psychologist, Mr. Speaker. That, to me, is a gaping hole in the services that are available to violent offenders here in the Northwest Territories, and it’s little wonder our statistics are going up when we don’t have a clinical psychologist at our largest facility. I’d like to ask the Minister if there are any plans to fill the position of clinical...

Judging by the amount of repeat offenders, especially in the area of violent crime that we have here in the Northwest Territories, I’m wondering if the Minister could commit to reviewing the programs and services that are available for violent offenders at the North Slave Correctional Centre and other correctional facilities around the Northwest Territories in an effort to make sure that we are getting the best programs and services into our correctional facilities that we can. I’d suggest that the Minister look around the country, and even North America for that matter, to find out where the...

What message does this send to the victims -- these light sentences -- and to their families? Certainly we know the message that light sentences have on offenders, especially if they’re not thoroughly rehabilitated. They will get out and, sadly, most of them will reoffend. We have to do everything in our power to turn that trend around.

I appreciate the Minister’s comments. I’ll make sure that I get her a copy of the deck that she presented to the Standing Committee on Social Programs that day so that she has a copy of that. That was about 18 months ago. What I’m getting at is when the Minister talked about running an efficient and effective health care system here in the Northwest Territories, in my mind if we run enough deficits at some of our authorities to the magnitude that they currently are in, then are we managing and effectively utilizing the dollars that we have if those deficits are being allowed to build up like...