Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for both his statement and his questions today and his support for the NWT Wellness Court, which rolled out… The first case was heard October 2nd of this year.

The question about resources, so far this year, $305,000, and for next year we’re looking at $970,000. That’s in ‘15-16 and ongoing. We aren’t going to be successful with the Wellness Court unless we are continuing to work with our colleagues at Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment on the rollout of the Wellness Court and getting the people the help that they need when they need it the most. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I don’t disagree with any of the comments. I assume those are Justice dollars and I had also asked about the

Health and Social Services dollars. The evolution of a program like the Wellness Court must be driven by results. Over a few years, the Yukon Wellness Court gained an astounding drop in the rate of recidivism from 90 percent to 11 percent for those who completed the program. In past I have not been able to get information on what our rates of recidivism are, let alone how they are changing.

What systems are now in place to gather the statistics necessary to measure the effectiveness of our Wellness Court to ensure that it stays on track and continually improves? For example, what is the recidivism rate prior to implementation of the court that we will use as a basis for future considerations and so on? Mahsi.

The Member is correct; we are going to be taking stock of what happens with the Wellness Court. We’re going to be keeping track of the recidivism, and we are going to be getting the people the supports that they need as they go through the Wellness Court. We certainly are looking forward to getting those numbers.

As I mentioned, the Wellness Court took its first case October 2nd , so we are only a few weeks into

it, but my belief and the belief of the Department, and of course we have the support of the judiciary as well, is that the Wellness Court is going to make a difference and we’re convinced that it will make a difference. We will just need some time to see what a big difference it will make. We should be able to get the Member some statistics, perhaps mid next year, that should indicate that our numbers are trending in the right direction. Thank you.

The Auditor General has continually pointed out how this government has failed because we fail to put evaluation systems in place. Obviously, it’s getting too late to put an evaluation system in place. I had asked the Minister what systems he had put in place to ensure that information. This is very disappointing and, I would say, very irresponsible to be going forward with this program without those systems in place.

The Wellness Court is heavily dependent on other departments in the social envelope; for example, Health and Social Services and perhaps ECE.

What systems are in place to capture, compile and understand results from across these departments to evaluate Wellness Court programs and enable timely improvements, given that there is obviously none in Justice? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for the additional information from the Minister. I wonder if the Minister would commit to providing that. I apparently misunderstood his earlier comments.

I think we all expect great things from this program, judging from the results we have seen in the Yukon.

Will the Minister commit to annually report back to this House as to the efficacy of the Wellness Court and its attendant programs in other departments, which are critically important as well? Mahsi.

Yes, that would be something that we would look forward to doing. Again, we believe it will be very successful and we would like to share all that information with Members of the House and the public. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.