Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that we have a great, very long line-up of legislation that is waiting to be done. I really appreciate the fact that it is on the radar for the Department of Education. I look forward to getting something back in the near future.

The Minister mentioned that there is a policy. I would like to know from the Minister, is this a policy that directly addresses bullying or is it a different kind of policy. If I can get a bit of an elaboration on what policy does exist within the department that schools are asked to implement. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are various school boards that have policies addressing bullying. I don’t have the specifics of those policies before me, but each school board has their own jurisdictional policy that deals with their students in that region in the communities. I can provide that information once I get my hands on them. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for his response. I thought he had referenced a policy that would be an NWT-wide policy. I understand now he is referencing policies that each school board or education authority has. I think there is a need within the territory for a policy that is territory-wide. I would like to ask the Minister whether or not his department will lead a coordinated action to bring the education authorities together so that we have a coordinated and a common approach to bullying across all of our schools. Thank you.

Most definitely this will be one of the topics of discussion when I meet with the board chairs.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that it is going to be on the list of things to discuss with board chairs, but my question to the Minister was whether or not the department would take the lead and would initiate some action to coordinate bullying. I would like to ask him if he is willing to do that. Thank you.

The answer will be yes. We are gathering all of the information. We will provide those to the board chairs as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have done an analysis of Bill C10. Our analysis shows or we understand and believe that we will see some young offenders in custody for longer periods of time under Bill C10. One of the primary changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act under Bill C10, is it is changing to the main principles of the bill to include protection of society. In that we see some increases of sentences for young offenders by adding specific deterrence and denunciation principles of sentencing, expanding the definition of violent offenders, violent youth offenders may see more time in our facilities, and include behaviours that endanger life and safety of themselves and others. Our cursory analysis does show that we will likely see some increases within our youth facilities.

In respect to the theme day we had today, a lot of our drug dealers in the communities are bullying and getting our youth to sell drugs for them. In some cases, when it comes to drugs, you do tend to have violent crimes, so it is good to hear that any youth that are participating in this kind of behaviour are going to be starting to get sentenced as adults.

In regards to that diversion, I know we look at a lot of diversion programs. Is the Minister looking at the diversion programs in terms of sentencing our youth, or will they be put on the crime bill, as well, in terms of getting sentenced to jail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify one point. The amendments proposed by Bill C10 with respect to trying youth as adults, it only would apply when the Crown would be required to consider seeking adult sentences for things like murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault. Not every condition under any potential crime that they might commit, that there are going to be different penalties out

there for youth involved in violent crime. There are, under the Criminal Code and changes to provisions around organized crime, particularly folks in drug selling and involving organized crime, there will be some changes there as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Like I said, drug dealers preying on our youth to sell their product for them and some cases when the youth do get sentenced, it is usually just a slap on the wrist or diversion to another program where they are let back out into society and they continue to repeat the same type of actions. I want to get commitment from the Minister that he will speak on our behalf to ensure that if the drug dealers aren’t getting, I wouldn’t say punished or convicted, then the youth should understand that by them participating in this type of action, they are going to get convicted under the same type of criminal convictions that an adult would if they were selling drugs, and harming our people in the community, and continuing to keep our society down and contributing to our problems. Will the Minister commit to speaking on behalf of people of the Northwest Territories that he will address drug dealing, in this case, with youth?

There is a lot that needs to be done. There is no question that drugs and alcohol in the Northwest Territories are a problem. The Department of Justice is trying to focus more on prevention and diversion rather than incarceration. The department is doing things like supporting the Not Us campaign, which we got real positive responses on.

In the day, those youth that are involved in violent crime, those individuals that are involved in organized crime will likely receive stiffer penalties under C10 and the changes to the YCJA. That doesn’t change the fact that we still want to focus on diversion. We want to actually keep people out of the system, by preventing the crime in the first place. I think there are better results from actually focusing on the root causes of the crime and dealing with that. Those individuals who do get involved, those and youth that do commit serious crimes, under Bill C10 will receive stiffer penalties. The department will continue to focus on prevention and trying to find solutions to the root causes of crime. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to diversion and keeping our youth out of the system, will the Minister commit to creating a territory-wide awareness campaign to youth to educate them on the consequences that, if they participate in drug dealing or other violent crimes when this new bill comes in, we can protect our youth so they don’t have to go through the system? Will he commit to creating a territory-wide

awareness campaign so that our youth understand and know what they are getting into, and that we keep them out of the system and keep them living a healthy lifestyle? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, it is a good suggestion. Once again, we do have the Not Us campaign and the Department of Health and Social Services have their campaigns as well. I am interested in working with my colleagues in Health and Social Services but also with Social Programs on this type of initiative. I would like to have more conversations to figure out what would be the best way to go forward with that.

In the meantime, we will continue to move forward with Not Us and allow the communities to design programs that work for themselves, rather than us telling them what the message should be. We will certainly have those conversations. I am looking forward to those conversations. In the meantime, we have Not Us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked a bit more about the mental strain and struggles that a lot of victims go through with respect to bullying and cyber-bullying. If there was ever an ideology to put forward in terms of the Mental Health Strategy, I think this would be one of the best cases going forward.

My question for the Minister of Health is: Given the fact that, in my Member’s statement today and I am sure the Minister would agree, we’re dealing with a lot of potential depressive illnesses here, prolonged psychological issues with victims of bullying, can the Minister indicate to me, if I was a parent who is out there listening today, what means and what measures do we have out there to help these victims of bullying right now in our schools? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the things that the department is doing is offering community counselling programs in every region in every community. So the counsellors and wellness workers are available to assist youth, and youth who are showing problems, and emotional problems, and having emotions in dealing with issues of being bullied in schools. Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister for indicating about the community counselling programs we have there, but the question to the

Minister is: These counsel programs, are they really specialized to deal with bullying in nature? Bullying is a separate condition I think in cases that because of the repeated and constant repeating and violations that these people and victims have to go through. Are our community-based counselling programs equipped to deal with this type of issue?

The department is also piloting and talking about mental illness programs with Grade 8 students in Yellowknife. This program focuses on decreasing the stigma associated with mental illness, which could result from being bullied, causing depression for the youth, including suicidal thoughts and so on. So if youth are experiencing those, it’s more likely that they’re able to reach out for some help. The program also strives to build empathy with the youth, so they’re able to recognize somebody who is struggling and also recognize people who are being bullied and not saying anything. Thank you.