Mr. Chairman, the comments by the Member are very welcome. I have no doubt that the way that Members want us to go, is to go in the direction that has been suggested by this government, which is we take, borrowing from the Constitution, a broad and liberal approach to the development of community governments, and use that approach when we go to communities to develop the transfer initiatives.
As the Member says, the source of the problem has to be addressed. The fact is, I think all of us agree that aboriginal people of the north have been devastated by insensitive governments for far too long, by the imposition of foreign lands and institutions that, I think, have alienated the values of aboriginal people in the conduct of things like the courts, and the implementation of correctional services.
It is my view, that the approach that the Department of Justice is taking now, which is also being taken by the federal Department of Justice, is to go to communities and discuss with them what they would like to do in the area of justice. To work with the community to jointly develop understandings, and approaches, to how communities can get more ownership, and involvement, in the administration of justice.
We point out, for instance, that in places like Fort McPherson, the community has set up a council, from the community, of people who sit with the judges and the J.P.s to help in the sentencing of young offenders. There is a move in that direction, beginning in Fort Good Hope, there is a workshop starting tomorrow in Fort Simpson, where people will look at all those areas to see what they are prepared to begin working on. That is the way we are going to go.
I am not, in any way, feeling ownership of the way government has operated. I think all of us here, including the officials of the departments, are expected to support the types of changes being advocated by the Members, and by the government. That is, corrections is not one that the aboriginal people feel is relevant or useful, a poor choice of words, but really, corrections can be better handled.
We do that by talking to the communities directly, and getting their input into helping us design the administration of justice. The courts, the sentencing, policing, are some of the areas that we have made overtures to communities, suggesting that we need their ideas on how we can make improvements and changes to these different parts of justice, presently handled by the department.
Moving corrections into justice is quite in line with that. Where, traditionally, these have all been different aspects of justice, we are making the offer to communities by having it all under the Department of Justice. Communities do not have to necessarily see all of these things as separate little components, that they will have the opportunity to put them together in a framework. The framework will grow from there, with the assistance and input from communities.
We are not going to develop the framework in the absence of communities. I think that is the response. Thank you.