Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't think the Member would find any different opinion from Mr. Cooper or me, that justice delivered at the community level is better justice. I think what we would say, and Mr. Cooper advises me, that the community involvement in the Northwest Territories is already higher than what you would find anywhere else in Canada.
We have, across the Northwest Territories, 30 active community justice committees, where we are seeing them do exactly what the Member is recommending. They are taking administration of justice to the residents of that community and we are quite satisfied that they are doing it well. One of the reasons that we looked to find a way to increase the funding for community justice committees was just that. We have a number of committees that are very active and are finding themselves hard pressed to continue to deliver the level of service they are within the funding that was available, so we were under some pressure to increase it.
That is one of the reasons that we have managed to find the extra $240,000 to make available to those in this budget before you. We have a number of other things that we have done. We have accessed innovation funds from the federal government through the agreement for legal aid that allows us to ensure that lawyers get out ahead of the court party, to visit communities and talk to people who will be appearing in front of a judge at a subsequent date. We are trying to improve on the delivery of justice in the communities by making sure that it isn't all the same day, that the accused doesn't just meet their lawyer and then in a matter of a half-an-hour later, appear in front of the judge. We are trying to make sure that there is a chance for consultation.
The Member talked about facilities. We put a lot of emphasis in the North on trying to make sure that where offenders are sentenced to facilitates, that they are respectful and reflective of the culture of the North. We have a lot of people working in those facilities who are well versed in programming to address the cultural needs and spiritual underpinnings of northern society. We think that we are doing a fairly good job right now. There is always room for improvement, and I certainly can't disagree with the Member when he says that the best justice is that delivered closest to home. That is why we are working at strengthening the community justice committees and why we continue to support on-the-land camps as one method of providing service.