Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provides a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, if they could do it sooner, we’d appreciate it.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion.

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Does committee agree we’ve concluded Committee Report 16-17(5)?

We’ll move on to Committee Report 19-17(5), Report on the Review of the Auditor General’s Report on Corrections in the Northwest Territories. I will go to the chair of Government Operations, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Earlier today the Standing Committee on Government Operations read into the record its report on its review of the 2015 Report of the Auditor General of Canada on Corrections in the Northwest Territories.

The Auditor General’s report, which was tabled in this Assembly on March 3, 2015, concluded that the Department of Justice has not met its key responsibilities for inmates within the corrections system. The audit found that while the department had adequately planned for its facilities, it did not adequately operate facilities to house inmates in compliance with key rehabilitation and reintegration requirements. The committee would like to thank the Auditor General, Mr. Michael Ferguson, and his staff, as well as deputy minister of Justice, Ms. Sylvia Haener, and her staff for their appearance before the committee.

The standing committee is very concerned with the Auditor General’s findings. The report makes nine recommendations to government designed to complement the 14 recommendations contained in the Auditor General’s report and to help improve the deficiencies identified in the GNWT’s corrections system. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee endorse the 14 recommendations made by the Office of the Auditor General in its report and recommends that the Department of Justice takes the steps necessary to ensure all recommendations are implemented in a timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a brief comment here. The action plan from the Department of Justice had, I think, 100-plus items in it and many of them are scheduled to be finished by November of 2015. Many of those, as well, were looking at reviewing and revision of their policies and procedures and directives.

Committee felt that basically the department, at this point, has in place standing orders, directives, policies, everything they need in order for corrections to adequately function and we felt that there needed to be a greater emphasis on doing what their standing orders or directives or policies say, as opposed to reviewing and revising them. The review and the revision should happen but it will take longer. We felt it more important that the department put what they already have in place and monitor it, rather than they start the review and the revision right away.

So, what this motion is trying to say is monitor what you’ve got in place and make sure that it’s happening and then once that is done and you know that things are being monitored and things are being followed, rules are being followed, then look at reviewing and revising them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.

Question has been called. Motion is carried.

---Carried

Next I’ll go to Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Justice include the performance measures from Auditor General’s report in future reports on the department’s progress in implementing the Auditor General’s recommendations and in future departmental business plans. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This motion is somewhat self-explanatory, but to put it into context, as well, committee, not that long ago, and Regular Members, as well, went through a business planning process to which all departments bring forward performance indicators, I guess compass waypoints, dashboard indicators that show the performance of their departments. In this case here, this would have been the corrections services. I would assume that, and from our review, a lot of these indicators…and there wasn’t a lot of them, was probably the question. So, we’re hoping that through the process of the Auditor General’s review as well as committee review, that the department undertake a review and implement a much better monitoring system with these dashboard indicators and include them in upcoming business plans.

Again, the question is that if they were done properly, these issues that were noted in the Auditor General’s report should have been picked up by the department and executive much sooner than it did. So, I think committee feels pretty strongly about this motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion.