Louis Sebert

No, I realize this is a serious issue. When the previous questions were asked of the Minister of ITI, I was looking at something called the Bauer Report, which does go into some of the very complex issues surrounding this whole issue of royalties. I can advise that I will be looking at that further and discussing that report and its findings with my colleagues.

I don't think I could make that kind of commitment at this time because the royalty regimes are an important part of our revenues. As I say, we do know what the gross amount is. The question is: how much we are getting from each individual mine? As I say, in the past, mines both here and I think in most other jurisdictions have not been willing to share that information. Some of the information can be obtained through other countries, I see, by looking at the overall profits of the parent companies, but I don't think the mines in the Northwest Territories, that are generally subsidiaries of...

Yes, as I mentioned earlier, I think we were both very impressed with both staff and the inmates at the Guthrie House, and I can advise that the department is currently in the final stages of curriculum development for the pre-treatment healing addictions programs to be facilitated out of SMCC. So, we went down to Nanaimo, we listened and learned, and we are making progress in this important matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I believe the Member opposite, Mr. Speaker, is referring to the unit within the RCMP that will be looking at historical cases. I can advise that we'll be working closely with the RCMP with respect to this matter. I meet with a commanding officer, Mr. Zettler, quarterly. This is an issue that I would certainly raise with him. Thank you.

As Members will recall, this program has been under new management since June of last year. I understand that the program is working quite successfully. There have been quite a few men who have indicated interest in the program, so there was a seamless delivery of the program as the new management took over last year, or rather, July.

Yes, the Member opposite is quite correct. There were concerns raised by the staff. There were a number of concerns, including staffing and safety at the facility. I can assure you that these concerns are important to the staff and that safety is paramount among those concerns.

Management at the North Slave Correctional Centre has been conducting regular occupational health and safety meetings and joint consultation meetings with the staff. In addition, they have met with the union or the workers about these same concerns. Stemming and arising from these meetings, several things have been done...

Within all of our facilities, we have a number of programming opportunities available to inmates. That's true both here and in the facilities outside Yellowknife. They are constantly looking at and evaluating programs and rolling out new ones. They have recently enhanced the programs to deal with those inmates that have short sentences. They are set up on a modular basis so they can be continued outside of the facility.

To give you some idea of some of the programs that we are offering, they are the following: high school exam preparation, trades exam preparation, assistance with pursuing and...

Mr. Speaker, our mandate has outlined direct actions to improve the lives of Northerners. For the Department of Justice, this includes a commitment to offer programming that meets the rehabilitative needs of inmates. An integral part of the work that the Department of Justice does requires that dedicated individuals in our corrections service constantly learn and adapt to the needs and best practices for helping inmates in our system. These professionals are tasked with providing the safe and secure custody of inmates and supporting their successful reintegration upon release.

This is not easy...

As I mentioned, there was a seamless delivery of the program as the new management took over, but that doesn't mean that we haven't been looking at improvements, so here are some of the improvements we are contemplating: we want to make the program more flexible so that men will be able to join the group as soon as they are ready and get back into the program should they drop out. The program is more connected to community programs, such as counselling, victim services; an enhanced screening and referral process ensures continuity of service for men who are not ready to join a group so they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The commission, of course, is an individual commission and does not have any employees within or from any of the territories. The department and this government does realize that violence against Indigenous women is a national crisis. This has been borne out by what we have heard from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Inquiry.

We are assisting the GNWT with a dedicated family information liaison unit that is a research team to help the victims find relevant documents from across the country. We are assisting in that way. We are not part of the staff of the commission...