Mr. Speaker, during the election I heard a lot of comments and concerns about crime in Yellowknife. It has been over a year and those concerns still exist in my riding. Specifically the number of B and Es is up. I’ve had constituents tell me they have witnessed drug deals on the streets in front of their homes, and I’ve even had one constituent assaulted in his own yard after interrupting a potential B and E. Solutions, I believe, are going to require a solid, dedicated partnership between the DOJ and the Department of Health.

Today I would specifically like to ask the Minister of Justice some questions. I would like to thank them for the work they’ve done with respect to auxiliary police and special constables, but there hasn’t been much change on the street. There is still a lot of crime occurring. I think it’s going to take some creative thinking to solve some of these problems. We need some eyes on the street. One group in Yellowknife that is doing that is the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition. I was wondering if the Minister of Justice could tell me what level of financial support they have provided to that organization this year and how that compares to funding they provided in previous years, specifically last fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, it would take a partnership between the Department of Justice, Health and Social Services, and the community, whether it be the City of

Yellowknife or the coalition the Member is referring to. Funding has been allocated through my department and also through homelessness funding. There is certain funding provided to organizations to deal with these, whether it be for the break and enters or to assist the RCMP officers at the ground level. We as the 16th Assembly did

make a commitment. It’s one of the priorities of the 16th Assembly to deal with those issues at hand.

Community policing was a big issue, which we need to deal with.

We will continue to be vocal with the federal government and also with my counterparts, the Cabinet and also the Members during the business planning process. I can certainly provide the Member with a detailed outline of the program dollars that are being transferred or committed to this coalition group. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister of Justice for that information. I was wondering if he could tell me if, in fact, the Department of Justice provided any financial support to the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition for the 2008–2009 fiscal year.

Mr. Speaker, I need to get that further detailed information for the Member. I don’t have it in front of me today, but I would certainly be more than happy to provide that detailed 2008–2009 contribution to the coalition if there has been some in the past.

I look forward to seeing that information once the Minister of Justice provides it to me.

In a similar line, would the Department of Justice consider core funding to the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition so that they would be able to hire a coordinator to provide further training to their membership and promote their organization? It would benefit not just Yellowknife. If this organization is established, they’d certainly be able to provide the best practices to some of the other larger communities in the Northwest Territories — Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, Simpson — which may be able to benefit from their expertise and put in similar organizations within their own communities.

Mr. Speaker, we need to review all the contributions we made to organizations in the community. There is the John Howard Society; there is the City of Yellowknife, which is also in partnership with this particular initiative; the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition; and other sectors that we do provide contributions to. We have to keep in mind that we are going through the business planning process. We’ll be discussing the importance of community safety, so this could be one of the topics of discussion.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and once again thanks to the Minister of Justice. Given that one of our mandates is to increase safety and security in our community and that falls under the responsibility of one of our new strategic investment committees, I could see this as being part of one of our new initiatives, one of our new strategic directions we could take. I would encourage the Minister and I’d like him to commit to talking to the Minister responsible for that strategic investment committee to work with these organizations and provide some longer term funding so that we can actually see some results on our streets.

Mr. Speaker, I will commit in this House that I will continue to work with my colleagues on the importance of community policing, because we’re here to prevent things from happening, such as the crimes that are in the communities.

Another thing I would like to point out is that we also work with the community justice programs and the community justice committees. I think that’s an important factor we have to keep in mind. They’re the ones who deal with the community’s local issues. Certainly, I will continue to work with my Cabinet colleagues to initiate this process. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of MACA, and it has to do with the lottery funds that I talked about in my Member’s statement earlier today. What would be required to get that reviewed and some of those funds from the lottery program going towards arts and cultural programs, rather than just to sports?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. I don’t actually disagree that sports is a

good place for revenues to go, but there is an additional need, still, for support for our arts and cultural programs.

As I mentioned in my statement, almost every jurisdiction in Canada does do that — provide some of their support to arts and culture. As well, most other jurisdictions provide dollars directly to sports programs. They don’t just rely on the lottery revenues.

I’d like to find out how we can get this done. How can we modify this program? This is input from the public. It’s not something I’m coming up with by myself. I’m sure you’ve heard the same. How can we get a review of how this can be done and start thinking about how we can dedicate some of those revenues to arts and cultural programs?

Mr. Speaker, as I said on answering the first question, there is a review. They’re working with the Council of Sports and Recreation and doing a review.

As far as earmarking some of the money to sports goes, I mean, that’s something they would have to come up with once they do the review, if the review gets done, and then decide from there how they’re going to distribute the money.

Like I said

—

and the Member didn’t disagree with

me

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the money from the lotteries is not that much.

As the Member knows, it costs a lot of money to supply supports to youth across the Northwest Territories: bringing them to tournaments and helping fund some of their events. While both are very important issues, I think youth is still where the lottery money should be going unless a review is done and there is an agreement to divide up the funds.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t disagree with that. I just think that what we should be discussing is whether those dollars for youth should be going strictly to sports or whether they should be going to sports plus arts and cultural programs.

Are arts organizations represented in this review that the sports and recreation organization is doing? If they’re not, then it’s hardly surprising what they would come out with. So can we get arts organizations — territorial arts organizations, regional arts organizations — participating with the Council of Sports and Recreation in doing that review?

Mr. Speaker, arts aren’t presently part of the review. It’s a review done with the NWT Council of Sports and Recreation and MACA.

I think the Member is well aware that there was $500,000 recently allocated to enhance arts and culture funding. As I said, arts are not part of the

review process. It’s just between MACA and the NWT Council of Sports and Recreation.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My fingernails are still recovering from my work trying to get the government to do that. I’m very well aware of that $500,000. In fact, I acknowledged that clearly in my statement earlier today, and I’m very appreciative of that.

What we’re talking about here is revenue dollars from the lottery. I would like to hear the Minister commit to put some attention into considering that arts be included in the beneficiaries of those lottery dollars, as per the request of people throughout the Northwest Territories. I’m not saying scoop it all. I recognize the importance of our sports programs and that lottery dollars do this. I think, as I mentioned, there could be a big effort on the part of the arts community to help generate more dollars from the lottery revenues.

Mr. Speaker, the money from the lotteries, as I said, will continue to go to the sports groups. The Member has asked if arts could be a part of this review. That’s something we’ll have to take up with the department and see if there is an appetite to have them as part of this review.

Again, I’ll say to the Member that the money that lotteries collect isn’t a huge amount, and it costs a lot of money to run sports programs in the NWT. It costs a lot of money to have arts and culture in the NWT too. But right now the priority is on the youth. We don’t want to generate more revenue by saying, “Play more lotteries.” That sends the wrong message.

I think the fact that the lottery money is going to the youth is a good start for now, but I assure the Member I will discuss with MACA the possibility of having arts at the table if there’s an appetite for it.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. It’s in regard to my Member’s statement on the lack of services in a lot of our communities, especially core services like health care services such as nurses, mental health workers, alcohol and drug workers.

I think it’s very important that this government take this issue seriously. It is having a direct effect not

only on our communities but on this government’s ability to deliver other programs and services, as we can see with the major deficits we’re running in different hospitals in different regions.

I’d like to ask the Minister exactly what her department is doing to deal with these core service issues, where we’re finding that we don’t physically have people in our health centres by way of nurses, mental health workers, alcohol and drug workers. What has the department done to deal with this issue? I’ve raised it here for going on years and years and years.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.