Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I may have a moment, Mr. Speaker? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Community Outreach and Public Awareness
The commission celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Northwest Territories Human Rights Act in 2014. Tenth anniversary celebrations included a kick-off luncheon, a show-and-tell contest, a fall colouring contest and an anti-bullying tour of four communities with Rob “KASP” Sawan, an Aboriginal hip-hop artist and anti-bullying advocate.
Other community outreach activities included: attendance at trade shows in Yellowknife, Fort Smith and Hay River; visits to a number of communities; outreach to the Inuvik Rainbow Club and participation in the third annual NWT Pride Festival in support of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons.
The third annual Accessibility Award was given to the Tlicho Government for their new buildings in Gameti and Whati, which were designed to be accessible to persons with disabilities. The commission also maintains an online presence through its Facebook page and website.
Complaints and Inquiries
The standing committee took note of a printing error on page 18 of the Human Rights Commission’s 2014-2015 Annual Report. The chart for the number of inquiries by region mistakenly showed the figures from the previous year’s annual report.
Using amended information provided by the commission prior to the public hearing, the committee was advised that a total of 313 inquiries were received by the director’s office in 2014-2015, 14 fewer than in the previous year. The breakdown of complaints by region is as follows: North Slave - 150; South Slave - 24; Beaufort Delta - 31; Sahtu - 13; Deh Cho – 9; Tlicho - 5; Camps - 24; Outside NWT - 8; and Unknown – 49.
There were 38 complaints outstanding at the beginning of the fiscal year. To this, 32 new complaints were opened in 2014-2015. Of the 70 total complaints, 12 were settled, six were referred for adjudication, 12 were dismissed, and seven were withdrawn. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would now like to hand this off to the Member for Hay River North.