Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present the Department of Justice's main estimates for the fiscal year 2006-07.
The main estimates propose an operations and maintenance budget of $83.8 million and an infrastructure investment plan of $4 million. The operations and maintenance budget is an increase of five percent over the 2005-06 Main Estimates.
The increase is largely due to additional costs of policing in communities, the corrections services human resource action plan and the Collective Agreement. There has also been a reduction of $1.5 million due to the human resource amalgamation and over $800,000 in mandated reductions.
The department has six main areas of activity:
- • Services to government: The department is, in effect, the government's law firm. Staff lawyers draft legislation and provide legal advice to all GNWT departments. The department also works with communities and other departments to respond to family violence, improve supports to families in conflict, and prepare for the impacts of resource development; $8.6 million is budgeted for services to government.
- • Law enforcement: Policing services are contracted to the RCMP. This year, six new RCMP positions will be created. This is in addition to the 22 positions that were added to communities in the past three years and $25 million has been budgeted for law enforcement activities.
- • Legal aid services: The Legal Services Board ensures that all eligible NWT residents receive legal services. There are three clinics. The Yellowknife and Inuvik clinics provide criminal and family law services. A new Family Law Clinic was opened in Yellowknife last year. Lawyers provide legal services to eligible people in all NWT communities at no cost. The Legal Services Board provides public legal education and is responsible for the Court Worker Program in Northwest Territories communities. The department has budgeted more than $4 million for legal aid, which includes contributions from the federal government.
- • Courts: The department also operates the NWT courts. The total budget of $8.56 million includes money for the Justice of the Peace Court Program, Territorial Court, the Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeal, along with the court registries, libraries and reporters.
- • Community Justice and Corrections: The department has budgeted $34 million for adult and young offender facilities, probation, wilderness camps, and cultural programs to support the rehabilitation of offenders. This money also funds programs aimed at preventing crime within communities through increased community participation, that supports victims' initiatives and supports community justice needs.
- • Services to the public: Just over $3 million is budgeted for services to the public that includes funding for the coroner's office, the public trustee, the rental office, legal registries and the Maintenance Enforcement Program.
For the past several years, there have been new pressures placed on the NWT courts. Outside of Yellowknife, this has meant longer court circuits and more jury trials in communities. In 2005, the Supreme Court had 113 sitting days in communities outside Yellowknife and that's more than three times the number of days the court sat in communities the previous year.
This increase in court activity is also being experienced in Yellowknife, where courtroom usage has increased steadily and scheduled court appearances have doubled in the last five years.
Although the department has made good progress in implementing the corrections human resource action plan, there still is a lot of work to do. The main estimates include proposed new funding of $1.4 million to support training and staffing levels. This will make NWT correctional centres safer and support programs for inmates.
Those are the key points of the 2006-07 Department of Justice main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.