Julie Green

Thanks to the Minister for his response. A second concern I have is about the staff time, the time that is that staff will be spending on compliance processes versus time they will spend with their eyes on their clients. I can understand that this approach is somewhat a reaction to the report from the Office of the Auditor General and to step up compliance, but can the Minister assure us that, despite the focus on process, time with clients will actually improve?

Thank you. The Director of Corrections wanted to retain the ultimate authority over discipline in the correctional facility, which we understand. What we have here is an independent adjudication process. It will receive oversight by the Director of Corrections, but the key phrase here is that the director "may confirm, quash, or reduce" the periods of separate confinement, but he cannot or she cannot increase it. So this is a way to meet the needs of both the independence of the adjudicators and the need for the correctional facility to retain the ultimate authority over separate confinement...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I welcome the release this week of the Child and Family Services Quality Improvement Plan. This plan responds to the Office of the Auditor General's report last year about the ways in which government continued to fail kids in care despite a 2014 Office of the Auditor General report that identified many of the same problems.

The plan stresses how improving outcomes for the 1,000 children in care in the Northwest Territories must be achieved, specifically by complying with the policies and legislation that govern their care. Some highlights of the plan for me come from the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to add to the Minister's opening comments about some of the substantive changes that were negotiated and agreed to in the clause-by-clause review. As one of my colleagues mentioned, there were 32 motions, and it is certainly not my intention to go over all of them.

Some of the significant changes to the bill included a statement of purpose for the bill and guiding principles, a statement of victims' rights, and the inclusion of the development and offering of both general and rehabilitative programs that would be offered to both sentenced and remanded inmates...

Mr. Chair, I request that you rise and report progress. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister. Is there any chance of action on solutions before this Minister leaves office? Mahsi.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. What is the Minister expecting for a response rate? What would be, in his view, a statistically valid response?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

While committee was pleased to see the introduction in Bill 45 of concepts such as community advisory boards, an Investigations and Standards Office, and adjudicators, experts in the fields of corrections and civil liberties shared our concerns that the oversight structures established in Bill 45 were not fully impartial or independent. While we recognize the need to ensure a measure of corrections expertise in the bill's oversight processes, we believe the degree of impartiality and independence necessary for serious and high risk matters such as separate confinement or...

Mahsi, colleagues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They need to start by looking at the priorities outlined by the Coalition Against Family Violence, because they are still relevant. Their challenges to create policies and programs that demonstrate that family violence is not normal, and there is something that we can do about it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the debate about the carbon tax bill last week, I indicated that I was prepared to support it, but after reflecting on our discussions and doing some reading about carbon tax plans in other jurisdictions, I am no longer prepared to vote in favour of this bill.

There is a consensus among scientists and economists that putting a price on carbon lowers emissions and spurs innovation to find clean energy alternatives. For example, British Columbia has had a carbon tax for 11 years. Emissions have decreased by 4.7 percent over that period; and, contrary to the false...