David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Minister of Justice, I think I have to be very careful on getting involved in the Criminal Code side of things or sentencing. From my perspective and the department’s perspective, it’s very important that we look at opportunities to divert people away from the mainstream court system. Oftentimes, having communities deal with sentencing and issues at the community level is far more effective than locking somebody up in an institution, and we have had some success there. We made a presentation to the standing committee this morning on wellness courts, and that’s...

Thank you. We can get that detail for the Member, get him a breakdown. I think we even have it by facility as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left I have Mr. Peter Vician, deputy minister, Industry, Tourism and Investment. To my right, Ms. Nancy Magrum, director, shared services, finance and administration.

Mr. Speaker, we need to continue the dialogue with all departments and ensure that when we are contracting, whether it is any of the various modes of contracting that this government does, an eye is to keep those dollars in the Northwest Territories. Not always are we going to be able to get the goods or services here in the Northwest Territories. There are going to be examples of when we have to go outside, but again, it’s our government’s goal to ensure that the procurement dollars that we do have end up staying here in the NWT for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Department of Finance is taking the lead on that initiative and we certainly are supporting them in that effort. Thank you.

I don’t have that detail, but we’d be happy to provide the Member with that detail. Thank you.

No, we currently do not have that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It would be that number, 42, isn’t a static number. It keeps changing. As the deputy minister mentioned, we filled 20 positions. That number will keep changing. It’s a rolling process where we identify positions that need to be filled and then we fill them. That number is always going to change. It’s not always going to be 42. It’s not always going to be 20 that we’ve filled just recently. Some months it may be more, other months it may be less, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We could provide that information to the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, that’s yet to be determined. Our hope is it would be sometime this coming fiscal year. Thank you.