Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to follow up on questions from Mr. McNeely here. Can the Minister provide more information about the planned therapeutic community of the South Slave corrections? What is going on right now with that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister advise us what the status of the department's work towards implementing the recalculation services is? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is to the Minister in regard to legal services, about the opportunity to branch it out to the South Slave. I know that, in 2014, they looked at this. However, in 2014, we had lawyers there. Presently, in Hay River, we see one lawyer retiring and another lawyer downsizing his practice. Can the Minister explain why they wouldn't be looking at this? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate the Minister is going to get to me with that there because, again, we have made a change. There should have been new money to make this change if we got 100, and if there isn't, that means seniors or elders were getting the short end of it who were actually accessing the program. The Minister actually talked about elders going out and cutting wood and that to help, you know, pay for that. That is great, but did they look at actually allocating the money that was litres as money instead of just coming out with monetary value?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the department may not be doing it, but the RCMP should be tracking this, because we are supposed to be seeing a decline in the sale of cannabis, the illegal part of it. I guess I am looking forward to maybe you asking the RCMP to add that as part of their report to you. Can you get at least that done through that way? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My concern or my understanding is, I know in my riding, we only have one in Fort Simpson and we don't have anything in Fort Liard. Previously, we had two or three in Fort Simpson and at least one in Fort Liard, so again, this is a valuable service. I guess my question is: you are saying there isn't, but how are we going to be able to help administer justice if we don't have these positions there and they have to go out and get the service from another community? Will the Minister look at that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister providing those answers to us right now today. I mean, it is great that we need to get in there right now, but will the Minister look at actually putting a cost to it? Previously, it was 2,800 litres, and each zone had litres and not a monetary value. It is great that some people are able to access monetary value, but for those elders who are under that, will they look at the ability to, instead of monetary value, actually put it in litres or the value of those litres that they were supposed to get? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is: does the department track how many people have been charged and convicted of cannabis sales since the introduction of this new law? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for her answers to this point here. I guess my concern, though, is, when we talk about our divisional boards, when we only have two staff, we are going to burn those people out. They are going to be working really hard, and, you know, when you've got eight schools, it is very difficult for two people. They always going to be on the road, so it is a concern. When we don't even have the proper IT staff, you know, that is a concern.

Will the Minister make a commitment to do a cross-jurisdictional review of the funding formula?

Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I talk about the disparity between different regions here. I talk about the Sahtu has five communities or four communities. Is it four? Five, five communities, sorry, and four staff. In my riding, we have eight communities, including the Deh Cho riding, and we only have two staff. Can the Minister explain: if all education bodies have provided funding on an equitable basis, why are there different staffing levels at different divisional education and culture?