In Mr. Moses’ first question he indicated that poverty is a real issue here in the Northwest Territories and poverty has a direct result on crime. We know that poverty is an issue. We know that alcoholism is an issue. We know substance abuse is an issue. This government is doing progressive work to try and deal with those things. One of those things that we’re doing is an Anti-Poverty Strategy, which Mr. Moses talked about. We’re going to continue to do those things as a government and if we can reduce some of these root causes, we should see a reduction in the number of people that are entering our facilities.
At the same time we are doing a number of things. Diversions at the RCMP level, at the front end over the last number of years, have really plummeted and we’ve been working with the RCMP to get that number of diversions at the front end up. We’re also looking at alternative courts. We’re looking at a wellness court or some other model, as supported by MLAs when we get to that point, to help address some of those individuals as they’re coming into the system to keep them out of our jails.
Within our facilities we have a significant number of programs, that I mentioned earlier today, to help
people rehabilitate so that they don’t reoffend. A lot of work is required to change some of these root causes and as a government we’re starting to make progress there.