Glen Abernethy

The numbers might suggest that North Slave Correctional Facility is higher, but it’s also the largest number of staff. We don’t have the detail broken out whether, trending-wise, one facility’s got higher incidents than others, but we will look and see what we can pull out to see if we can actually pull out that data. I will say that most of the injuries in our facilities are under the categories of sprain, strain and tears.

I believe that’s the direction that we’re going and I look forward to the Member sharing that book with me once he’s done reading it. We have a 10-year strategic plan and we have a five-year implementation plan, and a lot of it is about prevention, quite frankly. We need to find ways to keep our jails as empty as possible.

We are working on a Community Safety Strategy which we have had a lot of discussion about and a draft strategy has been developed, and we’ve got a general idea of what it’s going to look like and now we’re looking at doing some piloting around that. I would be happy...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Department of Justice was one of the three highest on claims history over the last couple of years. I will say, for the record, that the department is committed to workplace health and safety. In fact, over the last year we had dedicated a senior management position to do some analysis and put some plans in place within the department so that we can see a real reduction in claims in the Department of Justice. In particular, in our facilities where we’re seeing the incidents occur. Since 2010 we have seen a 36 percent reduction in the number of Justice WSCC claims as...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a number of things happening in this area. We have a – I’m going to pronounce it poorly and I apologize for that – it’s Wekeahkaa: A New Day, which is a healing program which we have available and we’re just rolling this out as a pilot right now. We’ve done some contracting on there. It’s for men who have used violence in domestic relationships or other relationships. That’s rolling out right away. We continue to have – I’ve just blanked. I apologize. We have the Wekeahkaa.

None that I am aware of. They’ve had challenges. They’ve all experienced some degree of growing pains as they’re making these things become a reality and we’re trying to learn what some of those challenges were for them so that we don’t have to live through the same types of pains should we choose to accept the model. I will point out that I would say there’s no two models that are the same out there and we, as a territory, I think we say it over and over again, we’re unique in many ways. So we want to make sure that the model that is applied here works for here. So we want to learn from the...

That reduction is a result of a decrease in funding provided by the federal government in that particular program area.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The feasibility study is scheduled to be completed by March 31st. I’ve had discussions about the early draft that’s out there that’s within the department being worked on by the committee, which includes Health and Social Services, Justice and Education, Culture and Employment are also participating. I’m really close to taking that to Cabinet. Once it’s gone through Cabinet we’ll be bringing it to committee for discussion and about how we move forward, and the exact things the Member is talking about is the discussion we’re going to have to have once we’ve got all the...

I do, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the Sahtu, from 2011 to 2012 there was a noticeable increase in activity in the Sahtu. I don’t have the statistics in saying how many of them were alcohol related, but it’s interesting that the increase comes at a time of two things happening in the Sahtu. One, the increased activity, which can be significant, and the other being the changes in the rules around the Norman Wells liquor store. Those two things both happened roughly at the same time, so it’s hard to truly quantify what the increased rate in crime is. We feel that much of it is probably related to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 7-17(4), I wish to table the following document, entitled GNWT Positions to Population Ratio as at December 31, 2012.