Mr. Chairman, it has been pointed out before that the justice system, and the way in which the system is directed to deal with young offenders, has been largely in place, in the absence of any input from, certainly aboriginal people, and northern people. There are two aspects to it.

When young offenders have been dealt with in the justice system, one is generally some sort of fine is given to them. The other is, they are sent sometimes to facilities that are designed, and set up, for young offenders who are sentenced to a certain period of time.

It is our suggestion to communities and I pointed it out a little bit yesterday, in places like Fort McPherson, Fort Good Hope and other communities, to develop, and suggest, alternatives directly to the judges, and to work out arrangements with the judges at the community level, as to what they recommend be done in dealing with young offenders.

The department, itself, does not have a specific suggestion, to say here is what we think we should do, other than to say that the community can set up, for instance, youth justice committees, a council of Elders, or just a council of community leaders, that can sit in the courts, take part in the proceedings, advise the courts as to what they recommend, and what they are willing to do to take responsibility for those young people. That is the response I hope the Member is expecting, and that is what he wanted to hear. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, the thought is that whoever presides in a court proceeding, whether it is a Supreme Court judge, a territorial court judge, or a justice of the peace, they will continue to practise law, so to speak, using whatever examples we have in the past. The only suggestion we can make, to say they can do something different, is if the communities get involved.

People at the local level, for instance, might have a lot of young offenders going to court, who find that a large number of them are being fined, usually large fines and there is no flexibility in the sentencing. The fastest remedy is for a group of community leaders to start working with this department, to work out how they can get involved in the administration of justice, even on the interim.

The young people of the community would take note of that, and I think they would show tremendous appreciation for the concern and the care that community leaders would be showing through such an initiative. I also think that people are becoming increasingly more sensitive to the kind of problems and the pain and suffering that a lot of young people are going through, that we do not know about.

I think by drawing our community leaders closer to them, it has got to have a significant effect, a good effect on young people. It would show our own people reaching out, trying to help in an area where traditionally, we have had the attitude that if you are a young person, and you get into trouble, you are on your own. We have to give up our responsibility for you, you are now in the hands of the courts. You are at the mercy of a system that we have nothing to do with. To take an initiative is a positive sign, that everybody would appreciate, especially our young people. Mahsi.

The same individuals join me today, as yesterday, Mr. Rudolph, the Acting Director of Finance, and Mr. Geoff Bickert, Deputy Minister of Justice.

Mr. Chairman, again, just to build on what I was saying earlier, when you have initiatives by communities, where a group of people might be very concerned about the number of young people who are going

through the courts, there is a way in which they can deal specifically with youth, with young offenders, by setting up a committee that says that is all they are going to deal with.

That is what we have in Fort McPherson. It is possible, if the communities feel they want to take an even larger role, by dealing with, not only children that are young offenders, but also deal with their parents, and the adult offenders of the community. It is taking more of a family, and community approach to dealing with offenders. The community is taking a role in the sentencing and the decisions of the justice system, when dealing with parents and adults in the community.

It has been said many times that young people, for instance, will not be very eager to lay a complaint against an adult who has supplied them with alcohol, because it is not that they force feed them the stuff, the young people get it because they want to get it. I do not think there is any great inclination toward anger at these people for doing it, unless there is some tragedy involved. I do not know that a great deal of time could be spent on that. Again, dealing with the source of the problem, that probably is where I would be interested in working. I do not want to spend a great deal of time saying, "what can I do to get young offenders to lay complaints about who is supplying them with drugs, or who is enticing them to commit crimes, or who is encouraging them to drink, and generally get into mischief and misbehave." Rather, I would not want to ignore it. I would say that I would like to spend a great deal more time trying to deal with the source, and how the justice system deals with them. If we do that, then we just let the court sentence them, and send them off to correctional facilities, you are just going to continue. I think if we get community people to work with young offenders, to work with judges and the court system to take a more caring, I think, supportive role for these young people, then I think we should see a decrease in the number of times these young people come back into conflict with their communities, and with the justice system. If we also take an approach where the community should also take responsibility for the parents, and the adults, who also break laws, then surely, we would have good returns for our efforts there as well.

Again, sending many adults to jail, or fining them, does not do anything. It just puts a dent in their pocket, and in many cases, it has been said, that it is a relief for some adults to be sent to Yellowknife where they can have their own bed without worrying about it. They are absolutely dead certain they are going to have three meals a day, they are not going to be cold, and they are not going to have to worry about anything. There is no stress, the way some of them live in the communities, the kind of lifestyle that some of the adults lead, they can only say that it is a nice break, and I am going to be gone for a couple of months.

So, I think there is a real need to do some work in there, and I am quite anxious to get involved with communities that would take some initiative in this area.