Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the community justice line, I noticed that there is a decrease in the budget of $200,000. That was based on the revised estimate, so main estimate to main estimate there’s a slight increase. So last year you adjusted your budget by $300,000 upward and then you dropped it back down by $200,000. I was wondering if you could just go through the process of just explaining that up and down and if you anticipate the budget to go up by $300,000 sometime during this year again.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chair, the difference is the aboriginal justice money that we received from the federal government. That’s the difference in the figure.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Next on my list is Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, the community justice initiative, from our discussions with the Minister, the funding is for each of the communities. There is funding for each community coordinator and my understanding is that 31 communities in 2007-08 were involved with the $20,000 provided to each community. The 2006-07 numbers were that 30 communities were provided. With the amount of work that’s required or asked of the communities, is the Minister considering raising this budget line item in the future in terms of dollars going into communities to provide a service that would make a difference for the people in the communities with the funding increased for community justice?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chair, we need to take all those community justice coordinators and the programming funding that we’ve been contributing to the communities. We need to look at the whole structure, what’s working, what’s not working. Some communities in comparison to other

communities have higher costs. We need to take all that into consideration as well.

On the going-forward basis, during the next business planning process we’re certainly going to take that into consideration and identify the importance of having this program delivered at the community level and working closely with the RCMP “G” Division and also the judge. At this time, alI I can say is we’re going to take that into consideration and start working with the communities in identifying the gaps and some communities are not accessing the funds that are available to them. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, some of the issues that I think communities already know why they are not accessing this funding, because for the amount of money and the amount of work that is required to do a proper and effective job in the community justice, this $20,000 is not seen as a real solid commitment as to the issues you have to get involved in terms of these justice committees operating in the communities.

I have heard it over and over again that the $20,000 that is provided to the communities, for the amount of work that is required, they are expecting people to volunteer their time, energy and effort and go ask different organizations to borrow their phone, computer, faxing, translating. It requires a lot of work. I don’t think this could be asked of our department here on one of their initiatives. For $20,000 over a 12-month period of time when you break it down, you break it down to the amount of days that some of the communities really want to do some good work, but some of them are fed up and frustrated with the amount of support given to them. Translation, coordinators are not there. I look forward to the Minister providing some support and some review as to these justice committees that should be able to work in the communities, providing them proper funding. I want to ask the Minister in terms of how serious is his department to looking at…because this for me is just like a program that is not very well supported by the department by giving each community $20,000 to set up, operate, organize and work within the legal system in the community justice committee with the issues.

Again, I will ask the Minister. I know that on a going-forward basis, but this project is for 2009-10. Status quo is what I am hearing. Is that the correct response I am getting back from the Minister?

Mr. Chairman, certainly our department is very serious about the community justice committees and coordinators at the community level. We need to fully utilize their service. They are the expertise in the communities. We need to work with them. We need to work with

the elders, and the funding we had in place, we continue with the funding. Certainly, like I said earlier, we are reviewing the programming dollars. We need to talk about the per capita funding that is available and potentially having that as a base-plus possibly, so those are the discussions we need to have. There is also federal funding that has been committed to the communities; $315,000 has been allocated. This is the funding that has been identified.

On a moving-forward basis, we need to totally review overall programming dollars that we offer to the communities and how we can strengthen that, where we can strengthen it. If we need to identify additional resources or dollars, then we have to find that dollar from within as well as or part of the forced growth. Those are the discussions we need to have with the communities and with the MLAs. There certainly will be enough discussion in due time. Mahsi, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, at one time they had regional justice coordinators. That worked very well. Then the reduction brought it down to community justice. We were convinced at one time that by bringing the community justice programs to the community, it worked even better. What I witnessed and observed is that it hasn’t gotten any better. It actually has become more of a deterrent for the people because there are not enough sufficient resources or training for the community justice workers. I have been hearing this from my own people in my communities. They are quite frustrated with the community justice. It is a good program. I do agree with the Minister; it should work and it should be in the ideal world. Well, it is not happening in reality in our communities. Twenty thousand dollars for a program coordinator who organizes people throughout the year to sit down and look at issues in the legal system is very difficult for people. You want to document it. You have to do a bunch of things. If we give this money to the public justice and tell them to do that work, I don’t think they will be sitting there right now. Why is it no different in our communities in terms of giving proper support to the justice committees in our communities -- that I don’t understand -- while at the same time we have an issue with Arctic Tern and a $2 million budget annually?

We have, at the most, right now, as the Minister has indicated, four people with 14.5 staff there. That is almost four staff to one client with half a million dollars. I just don’t understand where this government is going or what it is saying. Yet we are in the communities asking for these basic services and here we are throwing money away. I really don’t understand and it is hard for me to say yes, I agree with you on efficiencies and effectiveness. At the same time, look at this in black and white. Twenty plus seven relief staff workers, history. Now

it has gone to 14.5 and numbers he said is zero to seven times. It is very hard for me to try to say, well, are you really there for the people? It is confusing. It is frustrating. I’m not sure what they are really saying. Some is okay. Some is not. That is what I am saying with community justice. I don’t get it. I don’t get it from this government. I don’t get what they are saying if you have these kinds of numbers that are black and white and they are just going on for 2009-10 they are hoping to review. It is just not very good when we try to go back to our communities, because this is the kind of information that is going to go back into our region. They are going to wonder why certain things are felt in the Chamber here.

There are lots of words in this sense, Mr. Chairman, so I am letting the Minister know that all of the things I have been asking for seem reasonable within a community in terms of basic services. This goes right against it. I will leave it like that.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I didn’t hear a question so I will go on to the next person on my list. The next person on the list is Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just had a few questions in regard to the North Slave Correctional Centre. Over the past year or just over a year, there have been two psychologists brought into that facility that currently aren’t there. I’d like to ask the Minister what are we doing in terms of mental health services at the North Slave Correctional Centre now that we’ve…I’m not sure if we rushed these two doctors out the door or what exactly happened, but they are not there anymore. We have to provide these services to the inmates that are there. I am wondering how it is getting done if these guys aren’t there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chairman, with respect to that North Slave Correctional Centre, we do have a contract in place to provide services from a psychologist, so there is a service being provided to the inmates. Mahsi.

I find it very hard to believe that we don’t have some onsite mental health services available at our largest correctional centre in this Territory. Regarding this contract that is in place, how often does this individual or company -- I’m not even sure who it is -- provide services to the inmates that are at the North Slave Correctional Centre? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the service is on a needed basis. I don’t have the detailed information right now on the actual

contract. At the same time, we do provide services through elders as well, trying to use their services at the centre. As you know, there are various activities happening, the program delivery at that correction as well. We tend to use them on a needed basis when inmates do require that. Mahsi.

Is the decision to go to the as needed psychologist and the services that they have and they provide to the inmates of the North Slave Correctional Centre a permanent decision or are we going to try to find another psychologist for that centre on a permanent basis? As far back as I can remember there was somebody there on site to provide those types of services to the inmates that are there. It is a departure from what we normally do. I am just wondering if it is permanent, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, you can look at it as a temporary basis until we find a full-time psychologist to deal with that particular role. It certainly will be under review as well. The contract services have been provided on how effective it is going, but it is not a permanent solution right now to have a contract. But they will certainly be under review as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I am glad to hear that that is not a permanent solution, because I don’t think that is a good solution; maybe in the interim but I suggest you find somebody.

The other question I have is the health services that are provided at the North Slave Correctional Centre and coverage of nurses in that facility. What is the coverage currently on weekends at the facility? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, those nurses at the correctional centre are always on call on the weekends, so they provide services through that avenue. Mahsi.

The reason I ask that is, when there is not a nurse at the facility for an inmate to see, two guards have to take that individual to emergency or to the hospital. It takes two guards out of the facility at any one time. The inmate goes to the hospital. We had this discussion last year. Has there been any decrease in the coverage of health care and nursing at North Slave Correctional Centre from last year to this year? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, as far as I know there hasn’t been any decrease in services being provided to the inmates by on-call nurses. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. I have no other names on the list. We are on page 9-27, community justice and corrections,

activity summary, operations expenditure summary, $33.270 million.