Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the mover, the Member from Yellowknife, Ms. Bisaro, talking about the importance of the federal government here in the Northwest Territories on the impact of this crime bill in the Northwest Territories and the realities that it will have on us in the North here.
Looking at this crime bill, the scary part is that the bottom line is that it means people who offend will have longer times in correctional institutions and more people will stay in there. Little will be done to educate them, work with them on rehabilitation into society. It is taking them away from their culture. It means that is going to be harder for the youth and it means that nothing much is going to happen in our communities. This government here will possibly be left to look after the children. Do we build more houses or health centres, or nurses or doctors, or do we really have to build these facilities to house our people? It speaks to a bill that doesn’t look at the realities of the Northwest Territories.
Shame on the federal government for doing stuff like this. Is this the one way for us to look at in our communities to the devolution deal where they say, well, if you sign the devolution deal, you should deal with the impacts of Bill C-10?
We need more money coming to the Northwest Territories, but then, because we have a legal
obligation, it doesn’t mean that now we have to build more correctional institutions.
I don’t know. This bill is not very good. I hope the Minister can work with his colleagues to convince the federal Minister to say we need to look at other alternatives to this crime bill. It is not going to work in the Northwest Territories and it is not going to work in the future. We need to make some changes. The residential school days are over. You cannot take the people again in a legal process away from their culture, and from their families and their teaching. Those days of punishment are over. Some people will continue to be in this system and they will stay in the system, as much as we try and work with them. There are other ones that could make it out. We need to work with the young ones. That is the reality.
This bill here needs to be looked at. I hope the Minister will take this to the federal Minister and talk about the hard impacts it is going to have on my people. I fully support this legislation. I ask the federal government, just because you have the mandate, you have the votes in the Senate, you have the votes in Parliament. It doesn’t mean you need to ram this bill here that is going to have severe impacts in the Northwest Territories.
I ask Members and I ask the Minister, along with his Cabinet colleagues, to really look at this bill and the impacts. I am really afraid that if it is coming down to not following this or not building schools or more houses or other facilities, that we are going to make some tough choices. We have to follow the federal legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.