Minister of Justice, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point in time, the department is putting together an information package for all MLAs summarizing what the federal announcement was. We, in general, support the federal government's attempts to improve the Young Offenders Act. There were a couple of specific areas that they were trying to work on including the area of being more direct or perhaps harsher on some young offenders who may be committing very serious crimes but, in the public eye, not receiving the proper punishment. The other is a move toward restorative justice toward corrections, et cetera. The thrust of the Department of Justice in the NWT is in the area of restorative justice and community justice. It is something the department has been working on for some time. In summary, we, in general, support the federal Minister, Anne McLellan, and we are, at this point in time, gathering information, as I said, and we will be sharing it with Members of the Assembly.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Minister Arlooktoo, for that detail. My supplementary question, Mr. Speaker, is to the Minister. Does the Government of the Northwest Territories have any abilities to enact laws regarding young offenders that could be put in place probably sooner than what the federal government legislation will take? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Generally speaking, the laws governing Canada are the responsibility of the federal government. The ones that the territorial or provincial governments can make cannot erode or take away from federal laws, but what we can do, generally speaking, is make rules and laws tighter or more stringent. There are specific areas the Member is referring to. We would be happy to look at that. As another general comment, much of the attention that was put on the federal announcement was on the fairly narrow area of youth crimes that have to do with very serious or shocking cases such as murders, beatings, et cetera, but if you look at the overall youth crime statistics, the vast majority of them are things like break and enters, theft, et cetera. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister again, and I will certainly look forward to the package that the Minister has committed to providing to MLAs. Has the Minister given any consideration or has his government given any consideration to having, he referred to harsher penalties and having restorative inclusions proposed to the federal legislation? Will the Minister pursue that further and encourage parents to take more responsibility to a later age for their children? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, we are open to looking at whatever suggestions MLAs may have. The current area that we are very interested in right now is in the area of restorative justice or dealing with root causes on why youth commit crimes and how we can help them when they are released to go back to being productive members of society because one of the big things that we have found is that, in many cases, putting young people in the correction institution has had negative impacts such as the youth going back to their communities angrier than they were or having learned new crimes, et cetera. This is an area that we are very much concentrating, the restorative side. I look forward to suggestions and cooperation among everybody in finding solutions for that.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Krutko.

Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When a client or an MLA, for example, identifies with us Housing Corporation clients who are having problems, we do take these concerns seriously and on a case-by-case basis deal with these clients individually. We have many examples of clients who have concerns that are brought forward by MLAs to myself. We, in turn, send the Housing Corporation staff to the communities to work with these individuals. This currently is the way we operate in many cases. The other emerging area is in the area related to community empowerment where we pass more of the authority of giving communities and local housing associations the ability to administer our housing programs and, in doing that, training local people to deal with clients and finding solutions. There are possibilities in that area, but in general, we do it on a case-by-case basis. We have identified the fact that there has not been enough done in followups, in some cases, and I appreciate the Member bringing it to me personally. We are trying to deal with that issue. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a couple of things that I can offer up to the Member. One, the Housing Corporation has taken seriously the Member's concern that he brought forward to us recently, that it appeared, in some cases, there was not enough followup with clients who have just finished building their homes and that has to deal with the warranty period, which requires some assistance in monitoring. We will see a change or an improvement in that area. I do not think it would be the best use of our staff's time to go back to all of the homeowners in the region in the next little while to see if they have problems, but what we can do is notify homeowners who have received homes through our programs of the next time the Housing Corporation staff will go to their particular community on their regular visits and that we are available to talk to them and ensure we listen to these concerns. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe there has been Housing Corporation staff in the Member's constituency over the last couple of weeks, but also our regional staff goes to these communities on a regular basis. These trips are announced, and we will make sure that will continue and make ourselves available to anyone who wants to talk with the staff. There are two other things that I would give Members a heads up on and that we are doing as a corporation. One is the production of homeowners' manuals which will be made available to all clients which will discuss or show in easy terms some routine repair requirements and things about maintaining your own home. The other is, recently I directed the corporation to come up with options for us to consider maintenance programs for homeowners. What we are finding is that the first crop of HAP clients has been in their homes for the last 10 or 12 years and some have had little or no preventative maintenance and therefore, will require some assistance or some expertise at least. I hope to be showing or announcing to the House soon what we plan to do in that regard. Thank you.

Thank you. Question period is over. You still have one final supplementary. Mr. Krutko.