Okay, I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee today? Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-14, and we’d like to consider Justice, Executive, Aboriginal and Intergovernmental Relations, Finance and the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Okay. Is committee agreed?

Agreed, thank you. We will proceed with that after a brief break.

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I will call Committee of the Whole to order. Committee, we are dealing with the Department of Justice. Mr. Abernethy, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?

I do, Madam Chair.

Does committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Mr. Abernethy, if you would introduce your witnesses for us, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is the deputy minister of Justice, Sylvia Haener, and on my left is the director of finance, Kim Schofield.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Page 9-31, Justice, activity summary, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.169 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask, really, what kind of mental health services we provide within our corrections system.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a number of things available, different programs available. As I’ve indicated previously, when an inmate comes in, we do a classification or assessment with the individual where we identify their individual needs and focus them in on programs that will suit their individual needs. At the Fort Smith centre – River Ridge, right? At River Ridge we have some additional programming available for individuals with cognitive or other challenges specifically for those individuals who have those types of needs. I can’t remember the names of the specific programs but they’re tailored to suit individuals who do have cognitive or other mental health issues.

Thanks to the Minister. What are these? Are they in-house services or are they accessing Health and Social Services' services? We just heard, I don’t know if you had the opportunity, but many of us attended the Early Childhood Development Conference and we learned that in 50 percent or more of FASD-assumed people, actually it’s trauma from early life experiences rather than FASD. Obviously, the assessment side is very important, especially when we have people that are returning to the corrections repeatedly. What sort of resources do we have to

help deal with those sorts of things and are they in-house?

We have in-house psychologists and other professionals that can help individuals. We have programming available to all of our staff, which is the Mental Health First Aid, which the Department of Health is doing some work on right now to customize to suit or be more specific to northern realities. We are going to have a bunch of our staff trained to be providers of that first aid training, so it’s going to be available to all of our staff within the facilities. But we don’t rely just in-house. We do access services outside of the facility, be it psychiatrist or other professionals as deemed appropriate based on the individual needs.

I’m happy to hear the information that the Member is providing me on FASD, and I’d certainly look in to that myself a little bit more to get a better understanding. But we don’t assess whether people have FASD within our facilities. We assess their challenges and their limitations, and what resources they need in order to lead more productive lives and help them rehabilitate. Rather than assessing them and assigning them a label, we’re working with them to identify limitations and help them address those limitations. We don’t diagnose or prescribe or identify someone as FASD. We identify that they have challenges and these are the programs that will help them overcome those challenges to help them rehabilitate.

Thanks for that information. I know the Minister’s interest in the sorts of things we were hearing at the early childhood conference as opposed to what we heard in some of our reviews of the Child and Family Services Act, so I know he’ll follow up on that. How do these resources compare to what we think should be in place, or will need to be in place if we had a wellness court or a mental health court? Are we at a position yet? I know the feasibility study is not completed but the Minister has looked at a draft. Is there a sense on how this would compare to what would be needed?

I can’t say specifically. I need to do a little bit more research myself and talk to the department to figure out what they’ve come to as far as a correlation between what we have in-house and what we would require outside by way of mental health court. I will commit to getting the Member and committee some additional information on that.

Thank you to the Minister for that. Just in terms of cultural programming, I know that’s important in our system. Do we provide that in all our corrections facilities? Is the Minister comfortable with the degree of cultural programming that we’re offering?

I listed off a number of programs during question period today, and I think I’ve left my actual list with all those programming by

facility at my desk. But I have it printed out with a list of every facility and the different types of cultural programming we have. It’s comprehensive, and I’d be happy to share that with committee, I just can’t quote it to the Member right now.

Thank you, Minister. Next on my list is Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I mentioned during question period, I was looking at the 10-year strategic plan that you guys have in place here. Under one of the headings there’s “provide integrated programs and services to offenders,” and it mentions that the department will be working on doing individual needs assessments and strategies related to the mental health or cognitive disabilities. It talks about intensive therapeutic interventions for addictions or violent behaviours. Where is the department on this and what type of programs are actually addressing the addictions and the violent behaviours?