Mr. Chair, I am glad to move this motion. I see — and I think it was mentioned in our committee report — that three years ago when I first got into this, one of the first things I had to do was go through a budget exercise. The court registries in Hay River and in Inuvik were proposed to be closed. They tried to justify closing it then. We
managed, with the support of all the Regular Members, to keep those places going. Now, two or three years later, we’re saying we need ten additional positions under courts.
This is another example of positions being taken from the small communities like Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk. We’re saying there’s no need for those positions now. It’s $91,000 — peanuts. And we’re proposing to spend $942,000 to add ten new positions in Fort Smith because — why? — the court dockets are overflowing. If that’s the case, then our correctional facilities should be overflowing along with them. I don’t see that.
It’s hard for us from the communities to go back and try to justify saying we need more court positions. It was hard for us to go home and try to justify a $50 million to $60 million dollar courthouse. This is another example of taking from the outside and sucking it all into the capital. I have great concern with that.
The Minister said before that we’ll elaborate further on these positions once we get to it. I think we’re elaborating a little further right now. Talk about the applications that need to be filled out from the court workers. Now we need ten new court positions. Obviously, there are going to be more applications to be filled out.
The two just don’t weigh out, and it’s hard for me to sit here and approve ten new positions. I know one or two of them are supposedly going to Inuvik. That still causes me a lot of concern, especially when we’re proposing to eliminate four court workers and then we’re adding ten new court positions. I think it’s a bad use of government funds at a time when we’re trying to preach restraint. “We should practice what we preach” is a good motto to go by.
We’re sending a mixed message out there. We’re telling people, “Oh, yeah, we’re reducing; we’re reducing. We’re just reducing you.” But the biggest centres we’re increasing. That’s the message people are getting in the communities. I’m not sure what the pay is for the two court workers. I’m assuming — well, $91,000 on here for four. So I’m assuming it’s really not a huge number. We’re proposing to put $942,000 for ten positions. I am no mathematician, but that works out to $94,200 per person per position.
Mr. Chair, it’s just another example of taking from the people and giving to the bureaucrats, and it’s another example of the department being so far out of touch with the front line that they’re willing to centralize everything. A good example was the court registries. “Close those down. Centralize those.” This is just another example of a department that, in my opinion, is so far out of touch with people. As Mr. Krutko said before, I think a good example of that would be holding the
charter down at the community while they do the court docket, get on the charter and go back to the bigger centre. Now, that’s way out there. That is just not being in touch with the community. This is a prime example of that.
As a government and as Cabinet who know the needs and wants of the people in small communities — a few of you represent some small communities — you should realize that and should not allow this to happen. If it is left to the Regular Members to have to do something about it, then we have no problem with that. To me, this is the Department of Justice, but this is an injustice to some of the smaller communities to constantly see everything going into the bigger centre. That’s why I have no problem moving this motion, and I am going to be asking for a recorded vote.
