This is page numbers 679 to 724 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was communities.

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Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

May 28th, 2008

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I’m wondering if the function of this regional office is similar to the functions of the other regional offices and not one of a headquarter function.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Mr. Cooper.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Cooper

Mr. Chair, the functions are similar. Those positions are essentially court clerks, sheriffs and court reporters. The positions are the same except that the two satellite court registries don’t have clerks who service the Supreme Court, which is Territorial Court and JP Court. Otherwise, the positions are the same.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

So there is no headquarter functions with the positions that are reported in the region here? I’m asking because earlier on, when we questioned the distribution of positions, the Minister advised us that 80 per cent of the positions were in the region. I’m just ensuring that these are regional positions. Is this North Slave region located in Yellowknife? That’s clear to me. I’m wondering if they have a territorial function, a headquarter function at all. Are there any of these positions that should be located in headquarters or reported in the North Slave region? So my question is: do these positions have headquarter functions?

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Cooper

All of these positions are what we call dotted-line positions. They report to the judges for certain things — certainly when they’re inside the four walls of the courtroom. But the executive functions for running the courts consist of two individuals: a director and one assistant. Those are reflected under Yellowknife headquarters. Unless and until the courts move to a different place, we’ll remain in the same building — unless there is some confusion there. We only have two executive positions in courts outside of the actual courts themselves.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

This is my final question on this. If the North Slave regional office was located outside of Yellowknife, all 34 positions that are currently in place would be moving with the regional office function if, say, the regional office was located in Behchoko or something. Is that correct?

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

That’s correct, except for the judges and their support staff.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Any other questions? We’re on page 7-32, information item, Courts, Active Positions.

Department of Justice, Activity Summary,

Courts, Active Positions, information item, (page 7-32) approved.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Page 7-33, Justice, information item, Courts, Active Positions. Mr. Hawkins.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Chair, my apologies. I did have a question on 7-28. I was wondering if I could go back to 7-28 and just ask my quick question.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to page 7-28. Are there any nays?

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

An Honourable Member

Nay.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

There is a nay, so we will continue on with page 7-33, Justice, information item, Courts, Active Positions

Department of Justice, Activity Summary,

Courts, Active Positions, information item, (page 7-33) approved.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Page 7-35, Justice, Activity Summary, Community Justice and Corrections, Operations Expenditures Summary: $33.826 million. Mr. McLeod.

Committee Motion 14-16(2) To Delete $942,000 From The Department Of Justice Courts For Ten Additional Court Services Positions (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a motion, one I’m happy to put forward.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I move that this committee strongly recommend that the government take immediate action to reinstate funding in the amount of $613,000 for the proposed closure of the Arctic Tern Female Young Offenders Facility, under the Department of Justice under the Community Justice and Corrections activity.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion, Mr. McLeod.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Very quickly, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I think I’ve made my position, obviously, quite clear in the past five days. I think this is an excuse to close another facility out in the community and bring things into the central area, and I have a concern with that.

We built this facility a few years ago at a huge cost, and now we’re saying we have no use for this

facility. This facility provides good services not only to the clients who are in there but also to the community.

Again, I say at this time of restraint, when we’re talking reductions, we need to have a close look and utilize the facilities we have and not be looking at building brand-new facilities. That’s the reason I will continue to speak to the closure of Arctic Tern. It’s more than just a facility. A facility is just a building, but there’s a lot more to this facility than that. I’m afraid they’ll take the clients out of there and move them to the capital again. Then the act changes, and we’re going to have a need for a new facility. So where’s it going to go? In the meantime, they may have demolished Arctic Tern or whatever they want to do with it.

The reason I have an issue with this, Mr. Chair, is just that they use this as an opportunity to close the facility down, regardless of whether it disrupts any lives in there or not.

That’s why I’m more than happy to move this motion. It’s a recommendation to Cabinet and the department. I hope they’ll look at it very seriously, because we are quite serious about this motion.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. McLeod.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Mr. Chair, I would like to ask for a recorded vote again.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. To the motion.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

An Honourable Member

Question.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Question has been called. A recorded vote has been requested. All those in favour, please stand.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tim Mercer Clerk Of The House

Mr. Robert

McLeod, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Jacobson, Mr. Beaulieu, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Krutko, Mr. Bromley, Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Ramsay, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Committee Motion 15-16(2) To Reinstate Funding In The Amount Of $613,000 For The Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility (Committee Motion Carried)
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Glen Abernethy

All those opposed? All those abstaining?