Thank you. Just to wrap up before we go to the question, I appreciate the Minister’s response. But I feel very strongly that giving money to a community without any resource for them to assist them in properly applying that money is pretty much throwing good money after bad.

I think that this coordinator is necessary to assist communities that currently don’t have Community Justice committees — to get them established and to also assist those that do have those committees to be more efficient and to operate better.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.

The question is being called.

Motion carried.

We’re still on page 7-35. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to propose a motion.

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee strongly recommend that the government take immediate action to reinstate funding in the amount of $85,000 for the proposed reduction and contributions to communities for Community Justice activities under the Department of Justice and under the Community Justice and Corrections Activity.

Thank you,

Mr. Bromley. The motion is being distributed. The motion has been distributed. To the motion, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. This

government is supposedly about prevention. One of our goals is sustainable, vibrant and safe communities. One of our priorities is a focus on prevention by promoting healthy choices and lifestyles.

The lack of a coordinator, as was recently discussed, has not helped the situation. The communities are in a situation where they need some help. There are some obvious community

capacity challenges. There is clearly an unequal distribution of income across the North, with our smaller communities especially — some of the areas where these dollars are most effectively spent — being on the short end of the stick.

It’s clear that if we’re going to really be effective and efficient in pursuing our priorities, programs such as this need to continue. If we get federal dollars, I’m sure we’ll be able to put them in, in addition to this, and increase the effectiveness of the program. But, Mr.

Chair, we need to be at the plate here,

especially when these are our self-identified priorities. And on that basis, I

am strongly

recommending this motion.

Thank you,

Mr. Bromley. The motion is in order. To the motion, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, am strongly in favour of the funding staying in the department for this function.

In the little bit of interaction we’ve had with the Elders’ Justice Committee in Fort Resolution, it was positive for the whole community. They’re playing a positive role. It would be good to see the money remain there. Although I’m not sure that it’s exactly affecting that particular group, I’m sure it will be affecting other groups across the North.

The elders still talk about attending court and seeing first-hand and having a role in how justice is dealt with in a community. I think that without this money, it’s possible that justice will be taken outside the community. I think it’s important that people living within their own communities administer justice for the people in their own communities.

Thank you,

Mr. Beaulieu. To the motion, Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr.

Chair. This

area will be offset by contribution funding received from the federal government through the Aboriginal Justice Strategy initiative, which will be a vested interest in supporting programs outside a formal justice system, onto the communities.

Basically, this puts back into this particular program that we’re referring to. We are highlighting areas where we need to be creative and where we can improve in certain areas and where we can be cost-effective with our program delivery. We are maximizing our efforts into the communities, especially with respect to the programming. That’s part of the reason why we’re putting this forward, because we are getting federal funding that does offset these costs that are before us.

Mr. Chair, I’d just like to highlight, for the record, that there is money coming in from the feds that do offset this particular cost. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of comments to the motion. I’ve been listening to the Minister’s last two comments he’s made to the motion previous and this one here. What I’ve heard in both is that we’re being offset by federal funding and that one position is vacant.

This is another example of miscommunication. When the department was before Social Programs, I did not hear that. I did not hear that this was being offset by federal money. I heard “reductions to community.” That’s the magic word: community. That’s a word I use a lot in here. We look at it as money being taken from the community and being put into ten new positions in Yellowknife. I don’t know where it’s going, but I continue to have a concern with that.

This is a prime example again of information that should have been shared with the committee at the time we had our discussions on the Justice budget. Had that happened, you would not see some of the motions that are coming before us here.

The more information that we have as a committee, the better judgment we can make and the more informed we are. It’s just miscommunication.

I admit that it’s some of the Members’ first time as Ministers going through the budget process, but still, the department has been there for a long time. They should share that information with the Minister so he could share it with committee, and we’ll avoid a lot of this stuff that we’ve had to go through the last couple of days.

It’s just another good example, Mr.

Chair, of

miscommunication. Telling us the information as we’re bringing the motions forward is too little too late, in my opinion.

Mr. Chair, I’m in favour of this recommendation, and I hope the government does seriously have a look at the recommendations that we’ve made, as 11 Regular Members, because it’s something that we all feel quite strongly about.

Again I’ll say that proper communication would have helped solve a lot of the problems that we have over on this side. We’ve seen it from the beginning of this whole budget process, where there wasn’t proper communication. When you get calls from employees that are saying they’re getting affected letters and we didn’t even know about it, is that communication? I don’t think so.

We made a commitment to work as all 19 Members of this Assembly, to try to bring some of our issues forward. I’m encouraging Cabinet not to forget that. It makes your job a lot easier, having us on board. It makes our job a lot easier, having the information that we can then pass on to our constituents and not have to answer after the fact.

I’ve heard the term “proactive” a few times. We talked about being proactive, proactive, but that’s not happening. That’s just a nice word that we decided to use, and I’m just as guilty as the next guy. We’re reacting to a lot of the information that we’re hearing, and it’s just misinformation, miscommunication.

I think today’s a good lesson in seeing that we’re going to have to change that. Otherwise, we’re going to be going in circles for the next four years.

Thank you,

Mr. McLeod. To the motion, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have to back up those comments and just say that my door is open. I’m sure all of my colleagues’ doors are open for communication on items such as this. So just to reconfirm: my perspective is that of Mr. Ramsay on the last motion, and Mr. McLeod. We need some better communication.

Unfortunately, this also takes a toll on people, and I hope, in this situation, the toll is less than in the last couple of things we’ve discussed. There could have been an avoidance of a lot of this sort of kerfuffle.

I just want to note again that the general pattern that I see in this budget, particularly with Justice, is a detraction from prevention while concentrating resources in the courts, which is putting people in jail. I don’t think that’s totally consistent with our priorities.

I just wanted to add those additional comments.

Thank you,

Mr. Bromley. To the motion.

The question is being called.

Motion carried.

We’re still on page 7-35, Department of Justice, Activity Summary, Community Justice and Corrections, Operations Expenditure Summary. Mr. Menicoche.

The motion is being distributed. The motion has been distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to get some more information on the….