This is page numbers 6849 - 6882 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was safety.

Topics

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that somewhat exhaustive list of things. It’s unfortunate that most of the verbs that he used are future tense. I’m really quite disappointed that between January

2011 and the end of August 2011 it seems as though there’s very little that the department has done to promote this Leave the Phone Alone pledge campaign. I really feel that this is an absolutely wonderful opportunity to force people, to train people not to use their cell phones while driving. If they have a sticker on their vehicle which says they’ve pledged, they’re quite likely to think three or four times before they pick up the cell phone while they’re in the car.

I’d like to know from the Minister if he could tell me whether or not they will do such things as publicize the Leave the Phone Alone pledge campaign on their website, and if specifically the Leave the Phone Alone pledge campaign is going to be front and centre of their public activities.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

The answer is yes and yes and yes. I understand the Member’s sense of urgency wanting to have this advertised and documented. We have the plans to do so. We had wanted to have the legislation passed first, prior to getting this out in the public. We have started, and I’m sure the Member will be happy to see, further information being provided.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Yes, I will be happy to see it when I can see it. I guess I would like to ask the Minister: can he give me a date when I can go to the website and see a Leave the Phone Alone pledge access site? Thank you.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

We ask the Member to be patient. We will have the information ready as soon as we have confirmation and we know that all the legislation is in place. We will be stepping up our initiatives through the public for information on their legislation, and that information will also be on the website as soon as possible. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Justice. It’s in regard to the federal government’s tough on crime legislation and the possibility of minimum sentences.

I think, as a territory we should learn from other jurisdictions, regardless if it’s the United States who took the same approach and who ended up building more jails and having more people incarcerated, and for simple, petty crimes, that they end up in jail because it’s a minimum sentence.

As we know, the Northwest Territories probably has some of the highest crime rates in Canada in regard to Aboriginal people incarcerated into our jail system, which is almost 90 percent of the people in our system.

Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister: have we looked at the implication of this legislation on the Department of Justice to be able to implement a tough on crime agenda, especially when you’re dealing with minimum sentences?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This federal legislation, tough on crime, has been in the works for quite some time now. First it was the Youth Criminal Justice Act and then this tough on crime. One of our main goals and objectives as we come to the table at the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers meeting is to push for more programming into the regions and into the communities. More specifically, for the three territorial jurisdictions, because we’re quite unique compared to other provincial jurisdictions, and they’re fully aware of that too. We’ve been pushing with the federal, especially with the federal Minister, and we will continue to do that. The last correspondence that we sent out to federal Ministers and also provincial Ministers is to have more programming delivered as opposed to strictly tough on crime, more jails and so forth. We want to focus on programming into the Northwest Territories, along with our colleagues Nunavut and Yukon.

That’s the position that we’ve been pushing and we will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, that’s the concern that I have, is that presently we already are having a financial shortage in regard to the Department of Justice, where money is being taken away for programs and services that should be there for the inmates to pay for extra guards so that we incarcerate these people and keep them housed in the institutions. So we’re already taking the money away from programs and services to pay those additional costs. The fear that I have is that by having more inmates in our system, as a government do we have the capacity, resources or infrastructure-wise to take on more inmates with this legislation coming in?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

Mr. Speaker, those are the areas that have been assessed through the 13 jurisdictions that we have to deal with. We talked about the resources and the manpower that’s required when the legislation comes into force. At the same time, again, the federal government needs to recognize our uniqueness, the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and Nunavut as well, that this particular program that

we’re continuing to push with the federal government, it’s one of the priorities of the Northwest Territories Justice department to identify those key areas. We will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker.

The Member is referring to possibly additional inmates and if we’re ready for them. We could be ready for them. We have to be ready for them. But at the same time it’s the resources that are required are coming from the federal government. So, Mr. Speaker, we are in a partnership in that with the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers meeting and we will continue to push that at the federal table. Mahsi.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, as we all know, most individuals that are sentenced for two years and less spend their time in the Northwest Territories. Anything over two years, they are basically sent to a federal institution. I’d like to ask the Minister: have you been made aware of what the minimum sentence year is going to be and will there be implications on inmates that we have now, which may be having to do more than a two-year sentence and having to leave the Northwest Territories or is the minimum sentence, it could be two-and-a-half years. What effect will that have on our system?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

Mr. Speaker, the tough on crime has been in the works, again, for some time now, and we are doing an overall assessment of the Northwest Territories, the corrections, the program delivery, and we can provide that information to the Members for their review as well.

This is an area of interest for us. Whatever happens at the federal/provincial/territorial jurisdictions, it does have implications in our jurisdiction, as well, when it comes to tough on crime and more program delivery for those inmates and the minimum jail time, whether they serve it in the Northwest Territories or outside the Northwest Territories, there are additional costs to that. That’s an area that we’ve been pushing with the federal government: our uniqueness, how we operate in the Northwest Territories. We’ll continue to push that. There has been some reassessment of our Department of Justice and we can provide that information.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think, my question is: do we have the financial means and the capacity to take on this type of legislation that will be imposed on us by the federal government? Do we have the financial means to implement this type of legislation in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

If we don’t have those resources, then definitely we need to go through our business planning cycle to identify the core needs of those inmates. If there are increasing inmates in the Northwest Territories, we have to identify those. Again, federal is also a key partner, so we will continue to push them. But within our own jurisdiction in the Northwest Territories, there is a plan in place. If the legislation comes into full force, what are the implications and we need to prepare for that. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Human Resources and are in follow up on some questions my colleague Mr. Bromley was asking earlier.

Mr. Speaker, I’m having some difficulty reconciling the responses I heard with what I see in the response in the way of what we’ve paid in penalties. Mr. Speaker, in 2008, the first year of the Safe Advantage program, the GNWT paid $387,000 in claims. In 2008-2009 it was $440,000 in claims and we had a penalty of $11,000. In 2009-10 we paid $429,000 in claims but we didn’t have a penalty. This year, or rather 2010-11, we paid $778,000 in claims with a penalty of $243,000. Now we hear from the Minister today that because of these things and because of the Safe Advantage program, we are, in fact, developing health and safety committees to help address some of these issues. I’m wondering if the Minister could provide some clarity as to how, as we’re developing this thing, our incident rates are going up instead of down. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Minister of Human Resources

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our incident rates have been increasing for sure, but a large part of those costs are due to the fact that we’ve been paying compensation instead of focusing on medical rehabilitation and pension for injured workers. As a government, we’ve been working with other departments to develop occupational health and safety programs that will be government-wide, that all government departments will be represented on. We’ve been working very closely with the WSCC to have a blueprint or something so that we can continue to improve on our record. Through worksite assessments and so on, we’ve been able to prevent further penalties from being incurred. On a

go-forward basis we expect to see our claims and incidents reduced, and we’re starting to see an improvement already. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I’d like to thank the Minister for that. That certainly provides some clarity. I wasn’t sure, or I didn’t understand that it was the compensation that we’re paying instead of the rehabilitation that might be driving up these costs. I’m hoping the Minister can provide some assurances that we are changing our direction on how we’re going to be dealing with these and we’re going to focus more on promotion, or, sorry, prevention and rehabilitation rather than compensation. It seems to me that we really want to get our employees back to work, or better yet, we would like our employees not to go off work. So if I can get some assurances from the Minister that we are moving in that direction, that would be great. Thank you.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I guess that’s the approach that we want to take. We’re having these occupational health and safety standards and committees, and in conjunction with that we’ve also started focusing on our duty to accommodate. We’ve hired a duty to accommodate officer. We’ll be working very closely with WSCC so that we can work with individuals and help them get accommodated earlier rather than having to pay compensation, because, like, 62.4 percent of our costs are due to compensation. Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Once again, thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m happy to hear that we’re working in that direction.

The other part of that question was more focused on promotion. Earlier in the Minister’s responses to my colleague Mr. Bromley, he indicated that 43 percent of all of our claims are a result of falls, overexertion, climbing, and twisting. Mr. Speaker, all of these are completely avoidable. All of these, through proper training, education, and proper quality assurance and health and wellness training for our staff, every one of these can be avoided. If they’re avoided, we don’t have claims costs, which means we also don’t have people off for extended periods of time, we have employees that are healthier. So what is being done to enhance our promotion and training?

Yes, I understand from a previous response that these health and safety committee structures are going to be established, but I also know that we only have one health and safety officer in the Government of the Northwest Territories, or at least only one that I was able to find on the GNWT website, and that’s at Stanton. Where’s the rest of them, Mr. Speaker?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

In addition to all of the criteria with regard to Safe Advantage program that we’re introducing, and I’ll just go through very quickly and I referenced several times the

Government of the Northwest Territories Occupational Health and Safety Program and some of the things that we will be including are occupational health and safety management, occupational health and safety training, incident management, inspections, emergency preparedness, hazard management in Occupational Health and Safety Program evaluation. So we’ll have the structure and we’ll be working very closely with Workers’ Safety and Compensation Committee so that we can promote workplace training, increasing awareness regarding workplace safety, and also working with the department so that we can identify and get rid of unsafe worksites. So all of these things we’ll be working together to improve our record, because I agree that a large part of these incidents can be avoided, and that, as such, will reduce our costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.