Glen Abernethy

I believe we have seven core areas that we’re looking at, eight, I think. Security of tenure in subsidized public housing, inclusion of transitional and other housing, enforcement of orders, unofficial occupants, conversion to subsidized public housing, retention of inspection reports, consistency with the Condominium Act and other potential amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act are already currently being considered and are scheduled for consultation this spring and summer will include that review. Domestic violence is also something that we’re considering.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is the deputy minister of Justice, Sylvia Haener, and on my left is the director of finance, Kim Schofield.

As the Member knows, we haven’t looked at the New Zealand model, but thank you for bringing it to our attention. We will look at the New Zealand model…(inaudible)... I’d love to, but I can’t remember what I was saying. I’m just kidding. I actually do remember this time. I do remember. The answer to the Member is no, we haven’t looked at the New Zealand model and thanks for bringing it to our attention. I will have the department look at the New Zealand model and see if there are any lessons in there that we can learn and apply here. We do know that the Coroners Act needs revision. The coroner...

Thank you. I’m not certain how often it is actually ordered within the justice system by a judge, who is a separate branch or arm of government. But I will go to the department and I will try to get that information for the Member. Thank you.

What I’ll do is commit to pulling together the statistics that we have to date and get some additional information for the Member and committee just on the activities, the types of activities of the children’s lawyer. Even though we have that little gap in the middle of the amount of time that they’ve been in place so far, so that they have a bit of information. I’ll do that.

Mr. Speaker, if it’s court ordered, then it would be required, but to force an inmate who hasn’t had a direct order to participate in alcohol and drug treatment programming would be against the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, so we would not be forcing people to do something that they are unwilling to do unless it was court ordered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There’s no question that children benefit from access to both of their parents where all safety issues and no risk of harm to a child is present. We have, in the Government of the Northwest Territories and Justice in particular, a mediation program that is available to parents going through divorce so that they can work through the challenges of separate homes, separate lives with children to make sure that everybody’s got access where safe and appropriate. I think we’re – once again anecdotally, I don’t have any numbers, but we’re hearing positive results from that program that it is working...

As I’ve indicated earlier, diversion is just one tool in our arsenal, and it is proving to be effective in many ways. We’ve got statistics from other jurisdictions that have done some analysis on recidivism and they’re seeing positive responses there. As far as what we have as an actual analysis of diversion only, I don’t have that information, but I will commit to looking at the department getting some information on recidivism with respect to diversions that we’ve done.

But I have to say, once again, we have to deal with the root causes of crime in the Northwest Territories, and as I...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the position is in place, it is a new position. It’s been in for just over a year. Anecdotally, we’re getting positive statements on that position and what it is able to accomplish. I will say that there was a blip. Unfortunately, the original person that we had in the position left the Northwest Territories and we had to refill the position, which took a little bit of time. So we don’t truly have a year’s worth of data on the effectiveness of this. Although, we are hearing positive responses and a lot of anecdotal statements that it’s positive and there are good...

In Mr. Moses’ first question he indicated that poverty is a real issue here in the Northwest Territories and poverty has a direct result on crime. We know that poverty is an issue. We know that alcoholism is an issue. We know substance abuse is an issue. This government is doing progressive work to try and deal with those things. One of those things that we’re doing is an Anti-Poverty Strategy, which Mr. Moses talked about. We’re going to continue to do those things as a government and if we can reduce some of these root causes, we should see a reduction in the number of people that are...