Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Today I would like to express some concerns of my constituency about fair justice.

Mr. Speaker, we all know, unfortunately, that some of our young people get in trouble with the law. Some of those young people are first time offenders and fearful of the system. One of the biggest issues with encountering a new life situation, like trouble with the justice system, is that there may not be a clear understanding of the consequences of their behaviour.

Even though these young people may genuinely regret their actions and are motivated to better their lives, they may not have the skills or understanding to do so. This also poses challenges for the justice system itself, which aims at fairness and equal treatment. I believe that sentencing of our youth has to be clear and ensure that they do fully understand the consequences of not following out a conditional sentence.

One of the principles of fair justice is that trial and sentencing should happen without undue delay after charges have been laid. In the case of a conviction, the person must fully understand his or

her sentence. Every effort has to be made in the courts and by corrections to explain the details of a sentence and later the conditions of the release. Many of these young adults would gladly turn their life back onto the right track. There have been cases where youth thought they were released and did not know the consequences of breaching their conditions and as a result now suffer a continued or even harsher sentence.

Community justice groups and community corrections are tasked to help with their rehabilitation back into society. We have to strengthen the existing system to give clients more support in re-establishing their lives in our communities. We must recognize that they do need help to find the path to a positive life.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, our system does not always offer appropriate supports, particularly for young people who struggled through school and now are trying to understand our complicated legal system. Without adequate probation services and rehabilitation support, we fail these young persons, and they will end up back in the corrections system instead of leading a meaningful life in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Members’ statements, the honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Years ago an elder told me that taking care of our youth was like building or taking care of your hunting equipment. Without this, things continue to deteriorate quickly to a point where survival is impossible. The healthy survival of communities relies on our youth. These are an elder’s words of wisdom I try to promote whenever possible.

Mr. Speaker, the youth of Nunakput face the hardest challenges in the entire territory, possibly the entire country. Challenges such as few recreational sports, the high cost of supplies, the high cost of transportation and no adequate youth centres are just a few. Equality is all Nunakput is asking for.

Mr. Speaker, there are many students in Nunakput who have never played an official sporting game, such as basketball, hockey and the Super Soccer tournament here in Yellowknife. This is unacceptable. Another example is that if a group of youth travel to Inuvik, let alone Yellowknife, from my communities to a sporting tournament, the cost of an aircraft return flight would be $6,000, even before they left Inuvik.

Healthy youth results in a healthy community. That is why I am challenging the government to follow

through on promises and priorities established for our youth. Mr. Speaker, strengthening our communities through a wide range of youth enhancement initiatives must be a priority for the government, such as education, recreation, motivation, inspiration and edification. Making these commitments is not going to be easy and will require considerable resources to be assigned, but the alternative is more unhealthy youth, a higher dropout rate and possibly even more youth in the correctional system.

We have to be there for all youth in the Northwest Territories, not just where we live. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about board reform and initiatives of the government to move this large piece of refocusing government forward. During the life of the last government I was a big supporter of the agencies and boards review that began in 2004 but unfortunately was shelved in 2005 by the previous government.

Under the Refocusing Government Strategic Initiatives Committee the current government is moving ahead with board reform in our territory, and I still am a supporter of this being examined and analyzed.

There are currently 70 GNWT boards involved in governance for health, social services, education and housing. This is about half of all GNWT boards. Board reform supports the goal of the 16th Legislative Assembly of effective and efficient government and the priority to achieve greater effectiveness, efficiencies and a more client focused, service oriented approach through better planning, coordination and communication between GNWT departments. These are all lofty words and noble pursuits; however, this is a colossal undertaking. From what I am to understand, the GNWT is moving forward with a regional based boards approach whose responsibility would include Health and Social Services; Education, Culture, and Employment; and the NWT Housing Corporation.

I would like to thank the lead Minister, Michael Miltenberger, for meeting with committee recently to discuss this important initiative. I certainly do have a number of concerns as this moves forward. What I am seeking is reassurance from the Minister that once this is proposed to stakeholders, he shares all

the concerns with Regular Members before proceeding to the implementation phase.

I’m also concerned about the cookie cutter approach to board reform. Just because the Tlicho Community Services model seems to work effectively, will this model work in other regions? And, Mr. Speaker, what will this initiative mean in terms of legislation? We will require enabling legislation for regional boards and also changes to the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, the NWT Housing Corporation Act, the Education Act and even possibly the Public Service Act.

This is no small undertaking, Mr. Speaker, and again, we need to make sure that we get things right and that Regular Members have meaningful input before implementation of the reform takes place. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Recognition of

Visitors in the Gallery

Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to the presence of our Conflict of Interest Commissioner, Mr. Gerald Gerrand, in the gallery. Welcome back to Yellowknife and to the House.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker. Clearly, the rapidly unfolding events that have been happening around the world have had

an impact in the country. I indicated to Minister Flaherty just last week when he called that overall we anticipated a chilling effect in terms of credit, cost, the pressure on companies and the dropping of resources on the stock market. There is a whole host of areas where we anticipate there is going to be an impact.

The one good sign, I suppose, is going to be that the price of oil drops, even though we have already purchased our oil for the small communities. The price of oil is now down to $75 a barrel, I think it was today. But overall we are not going to be immune.

I would like to thank the Minister for that. To me this is something we need to be concerned about: the drop in the market and whatnot. It worries me that we have put a lot of our direction into the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline and the diamond mines. I’m not suggesting that we stop; I think that if we can develop a pipeline in an environmentally responsible way and get the benefit such as hydro and roads out of that, that would be brilliant. But I noticed that we have not spent a lot of time focusing on other economic opportunities in the North, such as fishing, agriculture and tourism. These things are a lot more sustainable. I think that for our future we seriously need to look at those as ways to increase our economy and employ Northerners.

I was wondering if the Minister could tell me if we are going to be spending any more time focusing on those types of industries to create a more sustainable economy in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, through the Strategic Initiatives committee there is an awareness and recognition that there is a need to expand our economic base so it is not totally reliant on the non-renewable resource sector. As we come forward with the initiatives and the business plans, it will be demonstrated that we are making an attempt to provide better support for those areas.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Members’ statement I talked about the work that is being undertaken to look at the review of boards and agencies in the Northwest Territories. My questions today are for Minister Miltenberger.

I would like to ask: how much consultation has already taken place? What’s the status of the work being done? This is something that people in the public are very interested in having input into. I’d

like to know where we are in terms of the consultation and the development of a plan.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been work underway now for the last eight months. We have briefed committee, as was noted. We’ve had some meetings and discussions recently with the DECs and the board chairs as well as the health folks. I will be coming into the House, hopefully this week, with a more detailed report to the House about what’s being proposed.

So there is work underway. There has been consultation, and there will continue to be consultation as we continue to carefully move forward with this large, complex undertaking.

We know that the North is small and people like to have input into how the services are provided in their communities and their regions. I would like to ask Minister Miltenberger if any of the actions undertaken by this government could be characterized as a centralization of that kind of either governance through input on an advisory basis or a management basis.

Mr. Speaker, the plan is to have an integration of service at the regional level to bring together and to tune up the legislative pieces that are needed to be there to allow things to function more appropriately, to bring together the administrative and finance systems, which are now scattered and often disjointed and unconnected. The intent is to keep the decision-making at the community and regional levels.

I wonder if the Minister could speak to the issue that was raised in my Member’s statement about the diversity of the different regions. Certainly some regions, like the Tlicho area…. There’s kind of an obvious way for that to work. That’s why the community service board is always held up as a prime example, and a good example, of how the integration of various social services — housing, education, health, social services — has worked in the past. That’s a very unique scenario.

When you look at communities in the South Slave, for example, you have two relatively large communities and a number of small communities. Some of the history we’ve seen with the governance of education, for example, with the District Education Council…. Has the Minister got anything he could share at this time on how the government is going to deal with that diversity issue?

Mr. Speaker, the Member raises a point that we’re very cognizant of

and sensitive to. That is that while recognizing there is a need to better plan, to do case management, to integrate these fundamental services of housing, education and health at the community level so we can be more effective in our planning and integrate service delivery, we need to tailor these to the specific regions.

In the South Slave, for example, it’s anticipated that we will have moved toward a regional board split between Fort Smith, Hay River and Fort Resolution. The services on the ground will still be there, so the decision-making can be made in a timely way. The board function and management oversight will be provided through that type of board.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s been reference made to the efficiency and effectiveness, but I’d like to ask: is there an underpinning to this exercise? Because this has to do with saving money.

The intent, clearly, is to put as much money as possible toward program delivery at the community level. We know the money we have currently as a government is insufficient. As we look at things like reductions and revenue options, we’re also looking at how we’re structured. Are we structured to best deliver the programs that are needed? If we’re more efficient and effective in terms of administration, would there be more money that could then go to the program delivery area? That’s the approach we’re taking.

The money that’s in the system will stay in the system, but we’ll try to put it as close to the community as we can to focus on programs if at all possible.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.