Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. There is a contract with a physician to provide services to inmates at the North Slave Correctional Centre, but at the same time we do have somebody in training right now to be a psychologist. That individual completed her degree program and also needs to complete one year under supervision before she can be registered. So that individual has a few more months to go, Mr. Speaker, to be qualified. So it is in the works and it’s going to be happening this summer. Mahsi.

Mahsi. Within our Justice department we do explore other venues, other jurisdictions, as well, to seek out the best practices, different programs that may not be available to us in the Northwest Territories so that we don’t reinvent the wheel. I’m glad the Member is referring to us exploring different jurisdictions, programming for inmates. So those are the areas I can commit to through my department to seek out the information from other jurisdictions. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, this information specific to SFA subsidy programming, there is going to be a review. Maybe this is an area that we can definitely look at, what the Member is referring to, so it’s a simple task for students to go through the process. I hear the concern of the Member and it may not be only one concern. There are other concerns as well. That’s why we are conducting this review of the SFA programming, the subsidy programming and other areas. Mr. Speaker, we are doing what we can to resolve our issues at hand and this is an area that we will definitely look at. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Mr. David Reid, president of the NWTTA.

Mahsi. There’s double time, time and a half, time. A lot of times the number of days are waiting for their trial. Those are the discussions that we had at a recent FPT meeting as well, and there’s been a lot of debate on the 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2, two times or double you can call it. So those are discussions that have been brought forward across Canada and we do raise our concerns as well.

There have been several cases, Mr. Speaker, that even young offenders have, like, 40 or 50 different cases before them, but they are free for various reasons under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and the acts are...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The repeat offenders that the Member is referring to and also the light sentences, of course, are at the discretion of the judge. The final decision lies with the judge. At the same time, at every federal/provincial/territorial Ministers meeting we deal with various laws that may be before us in dealing with the Justice Minister and also Public Safety Minister, and these are the matters that are always before us. The lighter sentence, there is always a question of why is that and change of the legality, the legal system. Since last year, there have been a lot of changes. We...

Mr. Speaker, I can speak to my department’s subsidy. It is being reviewed on a constant basis and we make changes due to the needs of the communities and also the Northwest Territories. We also work interdepartmentally. The message is clear that the Member is referring to and we will be discussing that through our committees. This will also be brought up with my department, as well, with respect to the subsidy program. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The teacher housing subsidy that the Member is referring to is sunsetting, I believe, this fiscal year. That particular subsidy has been in the works for a number of years. I do believe it’s under the NWT Housing Corporation as well. There was an agreement in place between government and the organization in Tuktoyaktuk. The Member is asking if we would, I guess, reinvest into that particular area. As you can see from other jurisdictions, we have teachers across the Northwest Territories. We do provide funding for their northern allowances. Based on that, they pay for their...

There have been numerous discussion and consideration taking into account a number of factors when deciding when and where the reduction will happen, including where the positions were initially established, with the funding and the current client caseload again. So, yes, to answer the Member’s question, these have all been taken into consideration when we were deciding.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, the transfer of the positions back to NWT Housing Corporation on the Public Housing Rental Subsidy has been active. As a result, there has been a loss of administration dollars within our Department of ECE. ECE is required to reduce the number of client services offices across the Northwest Territories. Those individuals were also handling the case of public subsidy units, public housing rental subsidy area, and then at the same time the client services officers were responsible for income security. Now the responsibility is with NWT Housing Corporation so...