Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The office of the coroner is a separate entity. If we looked at formalizing, you know, it is the coroner’s reports and instructions to government, and to

formalize that in some different fashion would change the role of the coroner’s office and that is a pretty big discussion to be having, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

I’m sure that the Minister is aware of the issue. What would his proposal be?

I haven’t given this any thought. What the Member is suggesting would certainly change the role and the scope of the coroner’s office. That’s something that we can take away and perhaps, you know, if there is a suggestion coming from the Member or the standing committee, that’s something we can get them a response to. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I think that would be useful. I am sure that the Minister is aware of the issue. I don’t necessarily see how this would be adding so much to the coroner’s office. It would not be something the coroner’s office would do; the Department of Justice would do it, take the lead for the GNWT as receiving the report and making sure that whatever department was the recipient would provide some sort of response that could be reported to the public and bring transparency that way. Just to the Minister’s perspective of this would be an extension of the coroner’s office and I don’t see that.

Could he possibly see what I’m talking about here, that it could be unrelated? The coroner does their job; the report leaves the office, that’s it for the coroner’s office. Now we’re being responsible to the public in follow-up. Thank you.

From what I’m getting from the Member’s questioning, he would almost see the department as policing recommendations that fall out of a coroner’s report. The department is not in a position to police other government departments that would be excited in recommendations of the coroner’s report. That’s not something that we do and I don’t know if it’s something we would ever anticipate doing.

I do know that there’s going to be some legislative changes to the Corner’s Act coming up. I’m not sure if it’s going to end up happening in the life of this government, but certainly that will be coming forward. Perhaps at that time, if there are some legislative changes to the Coroners Act, this might be a discussion that Members want to have when that act comes before this House. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. That’s an interesting thought. Again, I don’t see this as the coroner’s office. I think, in terms of a policing role, this department is well qualified to do that, but that’s not what I was suggesting either.

What I’m suggesting is bringing clarity and transparency to the public that the coroner’s recommendations in his or her report are actually received by the institution that they’re directed to

and that there is a response. It doesn’t have to be yes, we’re going to do that; it could be we’re already doing that or whatever, or we’re not going to respond, but something that simply responds to the public and provides that transparency. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, that’s something we could look at and discuss how that… You know, if it’s publicizing responses to the report, that’s something we can discuss. There might be a way to accomplish what the Member is after. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Next on my list I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just kind of staying on the same theme here with the coroner’s office, the Minister might know that this is something that has been of interest to me with the recommendations and reading of these reports and some of the alarming statistics that we do see with that.

I know in other jurisdictions they have these death review committees that offer recommendations to the government, and that poses another option of bringing accountability to government and making sure these recommendations get acted on.

Going through the Department of Justice website, looking if we had anything similar, which I don’t believe we do, I’m just wondering if the department has something that’s similar to a death review committee that would give assistance to the government about any legislation changes or policy changes that we need to address once an incident has occurred in the Northwest Territories. Obviously, they’d be working with the coroner’s office, but I’m not sure if the government has something like that. I just want to get confirmation and whether or not the department has looked into developing a death review committee for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don’t currently have a death review committee. That is something that the coroner is taking up with her colleagues from around the country. I believe Manitoba has one of those types of committees. She is still in the early stages of discussing that prospect, again, with colleagues from around the country. It’s certainly something that we may hear more about as her discussions continue with other jurisdictions on how those committees are working in other jurisdictions and whether or not there’s a possibility that we could have a death review committee established here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Some of my initial research on death review committees shows that they’re very good in

terms of the recommendations that are made and giving direction to government on what needs to be changed in terms of legislation or policies, or whether or not some type of action needs to be done in a small community. Obviously, there are incidents and cases where we’ve talked about policing in small communities and some of the small communities not having police officers, so that review committee might make a recommendation to include those things.

I’m looking at the number here for the coroner’s office and it’s just over $700,000. I don’t want to get a full breakdown, but how many positions are staffed at the coroner’s office here, and are some of those dollars used for the coroners’ operations for their duties in the communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chairman, we have two positions there, and the Member is correct, a lot of that funding goes to communities and work of the coroners in communities. Thank you.

In terms of this budget, I know, especially when you have to go into a small community and it takes a lot to cover the cost of going into a small community plus any other expenses that may occur, it doesn’t leave much room for one of the staff members or even the coroners in the communities to do any type of awareness prevention, education around these recommendations that we see in these reports.

Is there a budget for education awareness within this office, and if so, can I ask how much of that budget is geared towards awareness and education? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chairman, that’s not the role or the function of the coroner’s office on the education point that the Member brings up. That’s not something they currently do. Thank you.

In terms of educating our youth about high-risk behaviours, in the Northwest Territories sometimes we see the unfortunate incidents that result from that. I was very involved with a program called the Party Program, and I know they did it here in Yellowknife and I know they did it in Inuvik; I’m not sure what other communities there were. But it was very expensive and I know that the chief coroner at the time did some very strong presentations that were really effective in teaching youth and adults about high-risk behaviour, something that we always want to put forth. It was a very effective presentation and, actually, it was very interactive.

I wonder if the Minister would look at possibly providing some type of funding or working with the Department of Health and Social Services on injury prevention to look at developing that kind of program that really relates to high-risk behaviours

that we see in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, the coroner would participate, if asked, in a conference or an opportunity like that, but we do not have a budget for an educational component.

As far as Health and Social Services goes, they have programs, also DOT, on the high-risk behaviour. You know the helmet program that we had. There are problems out there through a number of different government departments that, hopefully, especially young people are paying attention to and taking part in. Thank you.

Obviously, the coroners that we have across the Northwest Territories are very effective in the fact that they deal with the scene at the time, whether it’s a crime scene or it’s a scene where… They’re sometimes one of the first few people on the scene, so they can share their own personal experiences or what they’ve seen that the general public doesn’t get to see. I’ve seen those kinds of presentations on various levels of areas and I always find to be the most effective in educating our youth about…(inaudible)…behaviour. So I think it’s something that this government needs to maybe look at promoting and seeing if the coroner would be looking at wanting to do something like that and just look at it as an option. Thank you.

Thank you. I thank the Member for his observations and his questions, and that’s something that we will consider. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Next I have on my list Mr. Hawkins, followed by Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under compensation and benefits, at the same time I’ve asked repeatedly the detail on this and I just want to reaffirm the Minister will provide a detailed level of detail to my office. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we will. Thank you.