Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m pleased to be here today to speak about Bill 15, Gunshot and Stab Wound Mandatory Disclosure Act. I’d like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for its review of this bill. This legislation will require health facilities to report instances where injured persons present themselves for treatment of gunshot wounds and stab wounds. It will also protect those involved in reporting from liability. Please note that this requirement does not relate to stab wounds that are believed to be either self-inflicted or accidentally inflicted. All gunshot wounds will...

Mr. Chair, at this point, we don’t actually anticipate having to do these types of fences at other facilities in the Northwest Territories because they pretty much already exist. If you go to Hay River and you look at the facility we have there, there is a large fence that is available, but the inmates there are also significantly lower-risk inmates. The one in Fort Smith has one as well. The female facility, we will likely have to put an area with a bit of a fence, a security fence, because we will likely have female inmates in remand in that facility, unless we end up sending them to other...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Sylvia Haener. She’s the deputy minister of the Department of Justice. On my left is Kim Schofield, the director of finance, same department.

The short answer is yes. The steps required for the disposal of the Hay River hospital include a number of different steps. The Department of Health and Social Services, as I’ve indicated previously, must first identify that they don’t have any use for it. If they have some uses for it, then we will work with them to find a way to make that building meet those needs. If the old hospital is actually deemed surplus to the needs of the Department of Health and Social Services, the disposal of the facility would follow our normal provisions, which I’m sure the Member is familiar with, and that’s...

Mr. Speaker, there is no question, we’ve already done the technical analysis of the building and it is completely inappropriate to use that building as a hospital in its current status. It is certainly cheaper to build a new one than to try to bring that building up to the status of a hospital.

At the same time, yes, office buildings are a different standard than a health centre, but we still have an obligation for public infrastructure to make sure that our buildings meet code. We tend to build above the standard building code for Canada. We would have to bring that building up to a certain...

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to recognize one of the Lifeguards for Lodune from the Great Slave riding, Ms. Jennifer Pitt. I would also like to recognize Lodune’s mother, Dehga, as well as Lodune’s grandparents, Gabrielle Mackenzie-Scott and Patrick Scott, all constituents of the Great Slave riding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today on my left is Gary MacDougall, the director of legal registries; and on my right, Ian Rennie, legal counsel.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here today to talk to you about Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Justices of the Peace Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for its review of the bill.

Justices of the peace fulfill an important role within the justice system of the Northwest Territories. They serve in communities where they work and live, performing a range of judicial and quasi-judicial functions. Justices of the peace carry out duties on a part-time basis and generally preside over summary conviction matters arising out of the territorial statutes...

I do, Mr. Chair.

Just for clarity, RCMP infrastructure funding is covered under a completely different budget supported by Public Safety Canada. They are the ones who, through the 20-year contract, are responsible for the capital, and obviously we continue to let them know what capital is important, including capital and facilities for RCMP.

Coming back to this one, it would be impossible to build upon the honour fence that the contractor of the housing development is building. That’s going to be more of a standard chain-link fence with some barrier in it so we can’t see through it. It’s about breaking sight...