Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, again, it comes down to a health hazard to the inmates. The corrections officers, when they go for, let’s say they are allowed to go for a smoke, they come back and deal on a constant basis with the inmates one to one. They are always with the inmates. Second-hand smoke is even worse. That is what we have heard over and over through health discussions. Mr. Speaker, that is the very reason why we have stopped smoking at corrections premises. That is the very reason why we are not allowing those individuals that are on guard with doing their job and looking after those inmates. Mr...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we talk about staff, they have different professions. We have security guards there that monitor the inmates on a constant basis. They are required to be at the centre. We have other staff that may come and go, such as secretaries or clerical or administrative. They go downtown and do their lunch and they may come back. They may pick up a smell of smoke to some degree. Mr. Speaker, those securities need to be at the corrections. That is a big difference where they are required to be at the centre. We don’t allow smoking at the centre, as well, on the premises. Mr...

Mr. Speaker, in coordination with the NWT Arts Council, those are discussions that we are currently having and how we are going to roll out the program, if we are going to enhance our program with the existing funding that we have, so those are the discussions that are ongoing. Once I get that information, more information on the new initiatives and also the research that we have done on the curator shows in northern and southern venues, we will be sharing those with the Members as well. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Our curator initiatives involved various partners, as well working closely with the northern artists, as the Member indicated. We need to work with the museum as well, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Museum, the NWT Arts Council and also Canada Council of Arts. In the meantime, what we are doing now is we are working closely with ITI and my department of ECE. We are committed to working together to implement the NWT Arts Strategy action related to enhancing the profile of the northern arts regionally, nationally and also internationally. In addition, Mr. Speaker, in...

Mr. Speaker, this is an area that I think we need to focus on those individuals starting in the centre right now. What the Member is alluding to is outside the centre. Outside the centre, of course, there is an establishment in Hay River that those individuals can utilize once they leave the facility. Once they leave the facility, Mr. Speaker, actually before they leave the facility, we want them to be integrated back into the community. The program that we deliver consists of on-the-land program, as well, which we do in the Sahtu region. It has been very successful. We will continue delivery...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are fully aware of the statement that was made by Judge Vertes. It is the root cause of issues that we are dealing with. It is very challenging on a day-to-day basis. As Vertes indicated, it has to come from the grassroots people, the politicians and also the public. It is not just us sitting here making decisions; it has to be the general public as well that we need to work together.

We have to come up with solutions. We have already developed plans on our initiative through the Justice department. We deliver various aspects of program delivery at the corrections. We...

I think we’re at a point where there have been identified partnerships in the communities. We need to involve those partners, the potential partners that are out there. We need to work together. We need to have this as an effective tool so we can reach out to those victims as well. So those are the initiatives through the Justice department that we’ll continue to pursue to reach out to the 33 communities.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Within our Justice department we’ve developed some communication tools so that we can reach out to the communities. We’ve also, of course, highlighted here in the Legislative Assembly and want to broadcast throughout the Northwest Territories as well. People are aware that this Victim Notification Program is out there. As the Member indicated and I stated in the House, there have been three applicants to date. I’m sure we’ll see more once we roll out the program as well as the communication plan.

Mr. Speaker, we have to look at all areas of the planning process. We are talking about 16 students in the community of Trout Lake; we have the capacity in the facility for 33 students. Those are the discussions that we need to have with the superintendents, the DECs. Mr. Speaker, capital planning will be up and coming before us and those are the discussions that we will definitely have. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Every year we go through this capital planning process and this year, again, we will be planning for next year’s capital project. Those types of discussion will be considered in due time. Mahsi.