Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Monday of this week, I received a call from Ter Hamer, a local business man and a sports supporter, regarding some vandalism that
happened at the Wade Hamer Mini-Golf facility over the weekend. The Wade Hamer Mini-Golf facility is run primarily by volunteers and it is to raise money for the Wade Hamer Hockey School. It is a school which is one of the major ones in the Northwest Territories and it is open to the youth at very minimal costs to families. The damage to the mini-golf facility means that there may not be sufficient funds in the future to run the hockey school. It is disheartening to see that volunteers, dedicated to community work, seem to receive so little gratitude from some youth in our community.
The vandalism is not an isolated event, Mr. Speaker, just over the last week in Yellowknife, there have been a number of incidents; vehicles parked along the Ingraham Trail had their tires slashed. In another case cars were damaged. Throughout the city windows were smashed on vehicles. Last summer, the city of Yellowknife held a number of meetings regarding violence in the downtown core area and several citizens mentioned the need for a greater responsibility to be placed on the parents and family of youth who commit crimes. I would like to see this government work with communities to assist in providing legal and administrative tools that allow communities to assume a greater role in administering justice matters. Recently, the Federal Minister of Justice, Anne McLellan proposed a new strategy for dealing with young offenders. The strategy focuses on presentation alternatives, sentencing and harsher sentences for repeat young offenders. A community-based sentencing that emphasizes the offender's responsibility for harm done appears to be a useful approach for crimes to property such as those experienced at the Wade Hamer Mini-Golf facility.
I trust that the Minister responsible for Justice will take note of my constituent's concerns and that he will inform us about the possibility of making changes to existing young offender sentencing and means for increased community participation in the administration of justice for non-violent crimes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause