Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Town of Norman Wells would appreciate hearing from the Minister his commitment on helping them put together a business case for their alternative energy use.

Would the Minister, once it’s asked by the town, see this as urgent and get the support of his Cabinet Ministers to sign off a letter that would be satisfactory to all the parties?

In fact, Municipal and Community Affairs has provided the community about $175,000 to assist them with the work, the technical work, engineering work, as they look at the type of conversion that’s going to best meet the needs of the community.

Once again, I’ll commit that we will make sure, as a government, that we are coordinated and supportive of the community in this process. I will, as well, be talking to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to follow up to my Member’s statement earlier and

my questions today are for the Minister of Justice. With most of the criminal activity that happened in the community of Inuvik, it was stated in the news today that a lot of it had to do with youth. I wanted to ask the Minister of Justice what type of preventative measures or programs are in place to help these youth that are high-risk youth, maybe troubled youth, to get back and become a part of society again. What kind of programs are in place in the communities that can help these youth get back on track and become part of society again?

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a couple things. Some of it’s promotion and advertising. We do have the Not Us campaign, which is actually a community-driven promotion and awareness campaign. It does exist in Inuvik. The RCMP are working with the community group who is delivering that, and I think we’re getting some pretty positive results in Inuvik.

We also have community justice committees in most of our communities in the Northwest Territories. They are working through diversion to work with youth to find alternatives and healing methods, and ways to divert them out of the criminal justice system. There are things that are happening in the communities. Thank you.

The Minister alluded to justice committees and alternatives in terms of programs in the communities. Can the Minister confirm how many communities in the Northwest Territories actually have active community justice committees and what type of activities they’re carrying out in terms of diversion?

I don’t have the exact number of communities that actually have community justice committees in the Northwest Territories. I do know that it is the majority of communities. I also do know that currently 30 of 33 communities have access to the program and are accessing funding. I don’t know how active they are specifically, but I do know that 30 of 33 are accessing the funding for their committees.

That’s really good news to hear, that 30 of our 33 communities are actually accessing this funding for these justice committees.

In terms of alternative and diversion programs having our youth go out and do certain projects or do things for the community, can the Minister allude to what type of projects that these youth are getting diverted into to helping out in the community in terms of volunteering to ensure us that they are not just doing labour work, that they are actually doing some type of skill set that will help them become mature and responsible youth as well as teenagers, and eventually become responsible adults? Can he

allude to what type of skill sets they are getting diverted to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, many of the individual diversions are very specific to the individual involved in the diversion, whatever can be arranged in the community. It would be difficult to provide a comprehensive list of every specific diversion that has taken place, but I will commit to getting to the Member a bit of a summary of the types of things that are being done in the different communities as well as a little bit of a summary on what some of the communities are doing as far as prevention and individual diversion.

I do know that some of the communities have submitted applications for money to run some on-the-land programs that are open to youth so they can get them away from communities and talk about positive activities. I will commit to getting the Member some additional information. I will be happy to share that with him once I have had it compiled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do these community justice committees take into account possibly the learning challenges, learning disabilities, cognitive disabilities that these individuals come before them might have when actually dealing with them and dealing with the youth in terms of putting them into an appropriate type of diversion program, or that the youth understands what they are actually going to these community justice committees for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, every community justice committee consists of representatives from the individual communities. They all come with different strengths, weaknesses and ideas. I couldn’t say whether every committee does exactly what the Member is talking to, but I know many strive to do that. Specifics would depend on the community-by-community basis and what skills they have in their communities, what knowledge they have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Trout Lake school Member’s statement earlier this afternoon. During my last visit to Trout Lake and with the recent letter received, they have indicated that parents and council, the chief has indicated that the Charles Tetcho School is too small. This fiscal year alone, there are 19 students listed in the morning, and in

the afternoon there are 16 students. There is a big open class. I have always said it is like the one-room school. There are too many distractions from the kindergarten class all the way up to the Grade 9 students, as well as the lack of storage room. I have been raising this issue for years. I would like to ask the Minister of Education what has the Education Minister done to get the Trout Lake school project started. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Charles Tetcho School in Trout Lake fits the criteria that we have right now. That is the NWT Schools Capital Standards and Criteria of maximum capacity with the 33 capacity within that school. Right now it is at 61 percent. As the Member indicated, 19 for 2011-12, so the school does meet the approved standard for classroom space and size. That is what we have currently, but the Member raised the issue on numerous occasions. I did address it with my department, how we can look into those areas of small community schools, distraction and so forth. We are looking into that as well. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, why is replacing the Charles Tetcho School in Trout Lake not a higher priority for this government? I had indicated the original school had burnt down. This is a temporary placement in the community hall. Why is replacing the school in Trout Lake not a priority? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, replacing schools in the communities would have to be based on the standards and criteria that we follow, the Government of the Northwest Territories standards that we follow. What we have before us is the classroom size, the 33 students that can be allowed in the schools. Earlier the Member indicated 19. It is a 61, a 60 percent margin right now. If it becomes a major issue where we have 30 students in the classroom, then it is a major crisis, major issue that we need to deal with. At this point the capacity is not at the maximum, so based on that, we have to follow the standards that are before us within the Government of the Northwest Territories. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that criteria works well if it is a school, but this is not a school. It is one room in the community hall. I keep impressing that on government. Why do our children deserve less in the smaller communities than others? I would like the Minister to explain that to myself and everyone in Trout Lake. They have to recognize that this is not a school. It is actually a room in the community hall. When will this government replace that school in Trout Lake? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that is part of the long-term plan. The Member alluded to 2018-19; it could be sooner. It all depends on the situation in the communities. We are not excluding those regional, small, isolated communities. We have to treat all the schools the same. It is all based on criteria as well. We need to follow that. That is our Government of the Northwest Territories criteria and standards that we are following. We cannot break those rules.

This is an issue that we have encountered in the past where there is capital infrastructure that happens every year. These discussions happen on a continuous basis. Eventually, we will see that school, but it is the school where students are being taught kindergarten and so forth and higher grade levels.

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…recognized by our department, by our government. We are providing funding for the organization, the school board, to provide that programming. We will continue to do that until eventually there will be a new school there. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That eventual reality of getting a new school is why I am up here and been raising the issue for years and years. When will that school be replaced? You have ECE standards versus the substandard. That is my point. That is not a recognized school by that community. The government promised to replace that school. They never did. When are they going to do that? Thank you.