What I understand the Minister to say is that the Minister, from his own personal experience through things that he has seen and witnessed through his life, has tremendous empathy for the victims of violence. He has sympathy and empathy for young children who are terrorized and brutalized by loutish deviants. He has empathy and sympathy for women who are beaten by their cowardly spouses, husbands or boyfriends. I take it that the major driving force behind the Minister's strong belief in zero tolerance for violence is that sympathy for the victims of violence. We are stopping violence, to stop it being inflicted on those victims. So when the Minister talks about the needs and the rights of people who are in the correctional institutions, no one disagrees. We are talking about shifting part of our responsibility in a real way to the most innocent people in our society. I support many things that the Minister has done. I think he has been a fine Minister of Justice. But I think the Minister has missed the point here. The point is not a point about who is trying to manage the budget, but about how necessary the funds are for the correctional institute system. The point is not whether or not you can pull $300,000 out of the Yellowknife police detachment, that has nothing to do with anything. The point is that we, as a government, have made a commitment to victims. We have said that we think victims should deserve a goodly portion of our support.
And up until now -- it is not a matter of diminishing federal dollars or diminishing territorial dollars -- we haven't done very much. We are talking about $300,000 out of $6.9 million. All we are talking about here is an extra $300,000. It really is two or three of your staff, your Iqaluit centre that has 25 staff and when we were there, it had five inmates.
We are not talking about totally disrupting the corrections system. I heard the Minister, in response to something that Mr. Dent said, say that there is a philosophical debate that must take place as to whether or not society has a responsibility for victims. I think the Minister, much to his credit, has strongly demonstrated that he believes that society does have a responsibility to victims.
I, for one, have applauded the Minister for some of the courageous steps he has taken in this area. So, we are not in disagreement here. I don't think that we are in any kind of a philosophical battle. What we are looking at is, is there a bureaucratic way to find some funds for victims. That is all that we are looking at.
I don't want to have an argument with the Minister. I am not here to argue with the Minister about his beliefs. I know his beliefs are strongly held and strongly felt. But the committee, and I am sure other Members of the Legislative Assembly, would like to have a specific commitment from the Minister in this budget for victims. I don't think that is too much to ask. We have given you full support in your endeavours in the whole area of zero tolerance. I don't think that the Minister has to be uptight or upset with any Members. I think the Minister can say yes, I agree. It is a very small amount that we are asking for in the big picture and if any group in society deserve it, it's victims. We are just asking the Minister to come up with a mechanism to do that. We suggested one, which I think can work. But if it can't work, by all means, give us a definitive mechanism. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.