Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Finance is as equally concerned as the Minister is, with respect to the escalating costs and human costs with respect to the justice system, and in particular, with respect to corrections. Clearly, if you have 90 percent of the correctional facilities with aboriginal people, we have got to find a new and more creative way to look after people who have committed crimes.
It seems to us, on the standing committee, that there was very little involvement in terms of the cultural relevance of the way in which people are incarcerated. We need to accelerate discussions, and I am pleased to see that the Minister is talking about moving forward in meeting with people and groups to find out better ways to do things.
I guess my concern would be that you have to put some time lines on those things. It is fine to talk about it, but talk is cheap in my world, action is what counts. We have heard this, from this Minister before, when we are talking about community initiatives, etc., and I suggest to you that we need a bit of a plan here. Somebody has to come forward with a plan, this is what we are going to try to do, this is who we are going to discuss things with, and come up with some comprehensive changes with respect to the way in which our people are being taken care of in corrections.
I know that in discussions, certainly in the east, there are a number of agencies and groups who are interested in a review and in discussing with the department, new ways in which, and I think more economic ways, if I can talk about dollars, ways in which to look after people, who again have committed crimes.
We need to move forward in meeting with these groups and coming up with a comprehensive plan. The cost, in terms of the justice costs, as we all know, is going through the roof. Whether it is in terms of legal aid, transportation costs for judges, per day costs of keeping people in jails, etc. We are talking one employee for one criminal, and to my mind, there has to be a better way to do it. There just simply has to be, you cannot just chuck people in jail, pop them out at the end of their term, and expect them to go home and be good boys and bad boys.
I know, in my experience, in looking at the repeat offenders, it is almost frightening at the number of people who are going back, and back, and back again. There is a significant judicial cost to this, never mind the human cost.
The committee is concerned that violence, particularly against women and children, seems to be at epidemic proportions. The committee supports a zero tolerance for violence. At the same time, the Northwest Territories has, as I have said earlier, the highest rate of incarceration in the free world. What is clear to us, is that the current justice system and our approach to violence is simply not working.
We recognize that solutions are difficult to achieve. This is not an easy task, but clearly some kind of swift short-term and some long-term action is necessary. The justice, the court, and the corrections system, contrary to popular belief, are not at the tail end of the problem, but are part of a vicious circle of violence, which we must make an effort to break.
Whose mandate is it? While there are a number of partners responsible, certainly the territorial government has the resources at its disposal to provide leadership and direction to turn this situation around, or at least make an effort to do so, and reduce the violence and incarceration statistics.
We suggest that within the territorial government, the Department of Justice is the most appropriate department to lead an integrated approach to this problem. The Department of Justice should not just be reactionary, as its current mandate in the 1992-93 main estimates states, it must be pro-active.
As I have said earlier, we need a plan. We need to find a plan to bring this about. A plan must be developed in wide consultation with the people in the communities and must incorporate an integrated and creative new approach to dealing with these community problems, rather than the current departmental approach.
For example, participants must include the families, federal and municipal governments, economic development, social services, police justice, corrections, it is a total all-encompassing problem. It is no easy task, we say that again. Solutions must be found. We must work toward preventative measures to try to reduce the need for jails and a method of suitable sanctions, or jails, which we will hope that we will not, and programs for victims and after-care. I cannot stress that enough, that comes up time and time again. After care to minimize the changes of reoccurrence. It is clear, that in the statistics we have seen, the repeat offenders are at a similar level of violence, it is at epidemic proportions.