Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize in the gallery today two professors of social work from Alta, Norway. Jan Erik Hendrikson and Nina Hermanson are here with us today. These individuals work with the indigenous Saami people in Norway and are travelling to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut hoping to meet aboriginal groups and leaders to gain further understanding of the social services. They are accompanied by Dawn McInnes, manager of NWT victims’ services with the Department of Justice. Welcome. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, this could be part of other departmental initiative as well. We are currently working with Health and Social Services. As the Member did touch on FASD and FAS, the clientele that we have and we do recognize that there are in a system in Fort Smith. There are certain programs for them as well. But with incarceration of certain individuals does cause costs to our department at the correctional level. One of the focuses will be possibly to divert the funding to the community programming. That is our goal. We continue to work with the judges, the NWT Supreme Court judges, to identify...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This has been an area of interest to the Member and also the Members as well. The community-based programming has been very successful to date in the Sahtu region. It was unfortunate that we lost an elder, but the program still continues. It is open to other regions, as well, if they are interested in pursuing the community-based programming to deal with the corrections offenders.

We are currently finalizing our review of the community justice programming and we felt that we needed to undertake that review to find out which community is not working effectively and probably...

Yes, Mr. Chair, I do.

I want to reassure that we are not hiding anything within our system. We provide any data that’s available on the Northwest Territories education system, because we want to be transparent and we want to be accountable to what’s before us. That’s the very reason why we’re going throughout the Northwest Territories in all regions to deal with the education matters. We are very concerned about that. We want to come to a solution. There is a solution at the grassroots, communities, who we are seeking advice from. It is happening. The federal, yes, we continuously lobby them through Education...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As you know, the Student Financial Assistance Program is one of the greatest benefits of all throughout Canada. There is other funding available through DIAND throughout Canada for First Nations students. Dene and Inuit students can apply for USEP funding through that department. That is additional funding on top of the SFA that’s out there.

The Member is referring to upgrading. We currently don’t provide funding for upgrading, but we provide funding for access programs through Aurora College and other institutions, as long as there’s an access program, such as access to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to provide an update to the Legislative Assembly on Not Us, the Government of the Northwest Territories anti-drug campaign.

Addictions and the crimes they lead to have serious life consequences. This government has a focus on prevention by promoting healthy choices and lifestyles, and the role of personal and family responsibility. The Not Us campaign is unique. It’s community-based, so it’s different everywhere. We don’t tell people how it’s going to be. They tell us how it’s going to be. There’s no right or wrong way to fight addictions in your community. It’s...

Mr. Chairman, the policing services have been provided from out of Fort McPherson. I need to get more detailed information as to the specifics of where it is now. I will get that to the Member.

Mr. Chairman, this particular issue has been brought to my federal/provincial/territorial colleagues just last week. I did raise communities without detachments. We do have them in the Northwest Territories. Again, pressuring the federal government of the importance of it. We also talked about First Nations policing policy as well. It is all interrelated to the communities without detachments. We are...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I, too, would like to see more money. The Member is referring to millions that should be going to the communities. I do agree with that. If we can develop preventative measurements, preventive programs, that is what our vision is, I do believe, with the Members and also our department. That is the very reason why we are doing an overall review. With the outcome of the review, of course, it will take some investment to make some changes.

We want to have community members involved as well. We do have coordinators and community justice committees that are in some of the...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have Bronwyn Watters, the deputy minister of Justice.