Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a motion.
I MOVE that this committee recommends that the Minister of Justice instruct the department to place a greater emphasis on literacy and developing inmate programming. Thank you.
Debates of July 4th, 2000
This is page numbers 397 - 466 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.
Topics
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
July 4th, 2000
Page 427
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. We have a motion on the floor. To the motion. All those for the motion? Against? Abstentions? The motion is carried. Mr. Dent.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Charles Dent Frame Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under operations expense on this page, I see there has been a significant increase in the amount budgeted for community corrections and adult facilities. I was wondering if I can ask the Minister or his officials to outline the reason for those increases?
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Sutton.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Sutton
The increase in community corrections is for the new probation service, which has been introduced over a two year period. That is to cover the second phase of the introduction of the new probation service.
The funds in corrections under adults' facilities are funds that have been reintroduced into the budget to replace the monies that were not received from Nunavut as had been anticipated. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Dent.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Ms. Lee.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Sandy Lee Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to refer back to the Minister's opening statement again. I think it speaks to this section. He says, on page 4 of his statement, that we are dealing with fewer offenders in our facilities than anticipated with our contracting back arrangement with Nunavut. The department has identified additional funding for corrections to make up for this decline and to further develop and expand programs for offenders. I am just wondering why, if there is less that he makes from Nunavut, I would think that there would be leftover money. I do not know if I am reading that wrong. At the same time we are seeing an increase in this section, so I wonder if the Minister can tell me if I am reading this totally wrong. I think I need clarification on what he said in the opening statement and how it relates to the increase in budget. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when the department was anticipating a historic number of inmates from Nunavut with the charge back arrangement, we were going to charge a few dollars for each inmate from Nunavut, and it would have made up for the amount that was put back into the adult facilities. There was an increase. Originally, when we were anticipating a lot more Inuit inmates, the department took out of the base of the Department of Justice the amount that we were anticipating to receive from Nunavut for providing the correctional services for the inmates. The numbers were not there, doing things for Nunavut. We overestimated the number of inmates we thought we would get from Nunavut and the amount of money we thought we would get from Nunavut. That was taken out of our base. So we have added into our estimates from last year to this year. Thank you.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Sandy Lee Range Lake
Just on the second part of my question there, Mr. Chairman. Could I just get some detail on the increase of $4 million there from the 1999-2000 budget to 2000-2001 under compensation and benefits?
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Thank you. The increase in compensation and benefits in page 7-25 is due to the increase of what I was speaking about earlier, about re-injecting dollars into the base from the adult facilities. Part of that is from the salaries and wages of the correctional workers. There was an increase in superannuation that was in there as well, plus the addition of probation officers, which also contributed to the increase in compensation and benefits. Thank you.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
The Chair Paul Delorey
Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Community justice and corrections, operations expense. Mr. Bell.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am wondering if the Minister can tell us if they have any new information as to why we saw a blip of young offenders this year from 50-something last year to 80-something this year. That is quite a large jump in the Territories and the department was not quite sure of the exact factors, but was looking into it. I was wondering if they have any new information.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the acting deputy minister to respond to that. Thank you.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Sutton
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are continuing with our investigation. We suspect that, in fact, there are a number of factors that resulted in this increase. We do know that in the demographics 16 years ago, there was a blip in the population in the birth rates. We are not sure to what extent that is a factor, but that may be a part of the answer. We are currently doing a manual review of the files in the courts and in corrections to see if we can identify the full story. We are hoping that we will have a better picture in a couple of months.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 428
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 428
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the deputy suggested, the population might result in slightly higher levels, but it would have to be quite a blip to be a full third higher. I am wondering if there are any indications in the manual review to this point that might indicate that sentencing has been more stringent.
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 428
Committee Motion 16-14(3): Recommendation That The Minister Instruct The Department Of Justice To Place A Greater Emphasis On Literacy In Inmate Programming (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 428
Sutton
That is one of the questions we are looking at and we do not have an answer on that yet. That is definitely one of the things we are looking at.