Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I know the Minister is new to this department but I have this general question: does the Minister believe the department is adequately staffed to fulfil its mandate especially when it comes to supporting communities and providing essential services? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this motion is not about the value of providing early childhood education to four-year-olds in the Northwest Territories, that is value that we all agree on. Research has shown time and again that investing in the development of preschoolers yields good results for them, not only in terms of school readiness, but in school achievement and in fact in life-long learning.

This motion is about rollout of the program. The rollout of the program, Phase 1, was reviewed independently, and that report was tabled in this House in February. The report included a number...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my last question for the Minister is whether a zero-based review might help the department to better understand how its current resources are allocated and where the gaps are. Can the Minister commit to undertaking zero-based review of her department? Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that response. If staffing is not the issue, can the Minister tell us what stands in the way of the department fulfilling its mandate?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the report from the Office of the Auditor General delivered a message about the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs that's both loud and clear: the department is not delivering enough support to communities that provide essential services to their residents. MACA can't simply transfer money to communities for drinking water, waste management, fire protection, and emergency preparedness and hope for the best, especially when the health and well-being of residents is at stake.

But that's more or less what's been happening. The most shocking finding for...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. First off, I want to ensure that I understand the Minister's position on records of non-conviction based on our correspondence. As Justice Minister, do you believe the RCMP should release information on criminal incidences for which a person has never been lawfully convicted when the release of that information can result in unjust and even unlawful discrimination against innocent people? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm rising today to share one NWT resident's experience with a document called records of non-conviction and to call for the end of its use in Yellowknife.

A constituent of mine who was on income assistance got a job working with clients in the vulnerable sector. The employer properly requires applicants be screened to ensure that they don't have criminal records. Two days after getting the job, my constituent was let go. He has never been convicted of a criminal offence but the forms supplied by the RCMP detailed the things he was not convicted of. Mr. Speaker...

I appreciate the offer of the briefing and I will talk to my colleagues about how to make that operational. I think the thing is that the ways things exist now is that we're kind of left out of the picture except for the one Member on this side who attends those meetings on our behalf that we don’t have an active say in what topics are discussed and what positions are taken, and I believe that we should have a role in that because what the NWT looks like in the future is of concern to all of us. So my question again is whether the Minister in addition to offering a briefing can consider other...

Thank you to the Premier for that answer. Mr. Speaker, in June of this year I asked the Premier a series of questions about content of similar meetings held with the same group of people, and I asked him if he would keep Regular Members informed of and invite our input into positions being put forward at these meetings by him and other Members of Cabinet. Can the Minister explain why this didn't happen this time either? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for his responses. A practice, of course, is no less unjust for being national rather than territorial in scope. These records of non-conviction are opposed by, among others, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the John Howard Society, and most recently the Government of Ontario, which is taking steps to outlaw their use.

The RCMP is a contracted provincial territorial police service in all jurisdictions except Ontario and Quebec. I am going to ask again, will the Minister of Justice consult with his provincial and territorial counterparts at...