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The territorial Young Offenders' Act is based on the federal Young Offenders' Act repealed on April 1, 2003.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.

At this time, I would like to ask the committee responsible for this bill if they have any comments. Mr. Bell.

Standing Committee On Social Programs Comments

Well, I hope that doesn't happen again, Mr. Chairman.

---Laughter

There was a little name plate down underneath the picture of me that said "Mike McLeod."

Mr. Chairman, our report kind of stands on its own on this bill. There isn't a point in me remaking all the points and re-discussing all the issues that we did when we made the report to the House. I think though that I would say that committee felt it was important to take this bill out for consultation despite the fact that this was bringing us in line with the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act and there was a requirement that the language be essentially the same, so there was little opportunity for us really to make significant change to this bill, but we still felt it was important for us to hear from constituents as to their thoughts on this bill and we also allowed a little latitude in allowing people to speak to the Youth Criminal Justice Act because it is hard I think in the minds of most people to separate the two bills and the different areas of influence.

We heard some very interesting things on the road, especially in Wha Ti. People there are very passionate about corrections and the effect it's having on communities, young people and families. It was very important for us to get that public input, I feel.

Certainly we've seen and we talked about this since April 1st of this year, the Youth Justice Act came into effect and there's been a change of philosophy that's been building over a number of years in the country and our philosophy and now our laws are reflecting the idea that we don't simply lock up young offenders and throw away the key and expect that that is going to rehabilitate people and change things. It can be controversial at times because you see extra judicial measures being used to see community sentencing options and some people who have been the victims of crime may have been less than enthused about an idea that young offenders are out in the community paying restitution instead of locked up doing hard time, Mr. Chairman.

I think that the legal community and the country at least is recognizing that incarcerating young offenders or making them come into contact with the legal justice system at such a young age does not necessarily turn people around. I suppose for certain individuals, some kinds can be scared back on the straight and narrow, but by and large that doesn't seem to be the case once youngsters come in contact with our legal system. They seem to be more likely to re-offend. We are looking for new answers and new solutions. I think this legislation does that.The territorial bill that we have in front of us really isn't talking about the kinds of crimes that typically have ended up with young people being incarcerated. We are talking about breaches of municipal and territorial statutes. There might be violations of the Liquor Act, for instance, or something like that, Mr. Chairman. It was important for us, obviously. We had little latitude in making sure that the language was consistent with the federal bill, but it was still a nice chance to hear from people about their thoughts and ideas about this very important area. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to ask the Minister if he will be bringing in any witnesses.

Yes, I would.

Does the committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, escort the witnesses in.

For the record, Mr. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today I have the pleasure of being accompanied by Shirley Kemeys-Jones, our assistant deputy minister of the Department of Justice to my left; Patricia Gall, legislative counsel, legislation division to my extreme right; and, to my immediate right, Janice Laycock, acting director of policy and planning. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Welcome, witnesses. We are dealing with Bill 26. General comments. Mr. Dent.

General Comments

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to see this bill, particularly because I believe it will allow more flexibility for the correctional system to deal with young people who come in contact with the law. This will include having youth work with community justice committees, rather than going through the court system.

Mr. Chairman, a fundamental aspect of having offenders working with community justice committees is the young person's willingness to take responsibility for their actions. That is, as I see it, a vital component. By providing opportunity for young people to be involved in taking responsibility, I believe we create a social environment for youth to learn from mistakes, rather than just to be simply punished. I think it sends an important message that taking responsibility for our own actions helps us to admit that we are human and need help from others to find our way again.

Mr. Chairman, community justice committees must be fully supported in the work that they do with training, funding and assistance from the Department of Justice. I know it will be important to see that kind of support provided in order for them to work effectively. There also has to be a significant amount of training and funding for support for others who are involved in this process such as victims' services, workers, the RCMP and others in order to make sure that provisions of the act are properly implemented.

Mr. Speaker, I think it's also important to be aware of the information needs the parents have. So I urge the department to ensure that with the implementation of this act, they consider how they will communicate effectively with parents and families of young people who come in contact with the law. We need to encourage community residents to be part of existing youth justice committees and help create new ones where we don't have any. This encouragement will have to take the form of financial support and assistance from the Department of Justice. I hope the Minister can advise us now that he's planning to have his officials put in the next year's business plan increased funding to allow more youth justice committees to be active in the NWT with better support. I am wondering if we can find out from the Minister if that will be the case.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Minister.

Ms. Jones.

Thank you. General comments. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On that same topic, I see from the report here and the reference in the bill about the need for the creation of youth justice committees under this legislation. I know that the community justice committees over the years have had the need to have the necessary funding and resources to carry out their work. We have seen successes in many areas, but it's an area that always needs the help. I had the opportunity to attend some of their conferences where the volunteers in the community express the need for constant, ongoing training as well as necessary resources. So I would like to ask the Minister whether or not a thought was given to perhaps not creating all youth justice committees, but having the community justice committees and having youth representatives on those communities to consider matters that come before them that deals with youth, or is that something that's not allowed under this legislation? Thank you.

Minister of Justice.

I will ask Ms. Kemeys-Jones to reply to that.

Ms. Lee.

But I am still not clear as to the structures of these two respective committees. Are we contemplating two separate, parallel processes of two committees; there being a community justice committee for adult offenders and a youth justice committee for youth? Thank you.

Ms. Kemeys-Jones.