Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to speak to Bill 26, Youth Justice Act. The bill repeals the Northwest Territories Young Offenders' Act and replaces it with legislation based on the Government of Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The territorial Young Offenders' Act is based on the federal Young Offenders' Act repealed on April 1, 2003. The Youth Criminal Justice Act replaces the federal Young Offenders' Act. These acts apply when a young person is alleged to have committed an offence. The federal YCJA applies to Criminal Code and other federal offences. The Youth Justice Act before you applies to offences under territorial legislation and municipal bylaws.

Federal legislation has changed how the federal criminal justice system deals with young persons. It includes a new approach to youth crime focussing on crime prevention, rehabilitation and meaningful consequences for youth who commit offences. Mr. Chairman, while the NWT has used this approach for many years through community justice initiatives, these federal principles were included in the bill before you.

Some new provisions in the Youth Justice Act include:

• • encouraging police officers to use extrajudicial measures such as earnings, cautions and referrals to community justice committees;
• • allowing conferencing, where community members, families teachers and elders provide advice to the police, Crown, courts or youth workers on how best to deal with a youth;
• • clearly stating that incarceration is not an alternative to child protection; and,
• • restricting the use of custody sentences to those youth who have demonstrated they cannot comply with a non-custodial order.

The YJA includes some differences form the federal YCJA. It maintains custody rather than custody and supervision and removes probation as sentencing options. The court may still impose conditions on a young person but removing probation ensures that a youth convicted under territorial legislation would not face a criminal conviction for breaching a probation order.

Mr. Chairman, the department does not expect a significant impact from the adoption of the Youth Justice Act. Any impacts that do occur will be in the community justice and community corrections areas. It is not expected to impact custody facilities as statistics show that in the last three years, only one youth convicted solely of a territorial offence was sentenced to custody.

The department expects more youth will be diverted to community-based alternatives like justice committees. To support communities, training has been provided. The department is also in the second year of a three-year plan to provide each community in the NWT with up to $20,000 a year to hire a part-time community justice coordinator.

Three new community corrections workers have been hired to improve supervision of youth. These positions, located in Fort Providence, Norman wells and Inuvik, allow us to manage the workload and ensure workers visit smaller communities regularly.

These are positive changes that encourage youth to accept responsibility for their actions and recognize the impact they have on their community. For youth committing territorial offences, like the YCJA, this legislation limits their exposure to the criminal justice system and supports them in making positive choices.

Mr. Chairman, I thank standing committee for their input on this bill. I will be bringing forward three motions today to make minor amendments to the bill.

I would be pleased to answer any questions Committee of the Whole may have on this legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.