Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I had some questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. As you have heard, four athletes from Nahendeh didn't get the opportunity to compete for a spot on Team NWT. This is very disappointing, to say the least. Unfortunately, nothing can be done now for these games. However, I hope we can fix it for future games.

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that each Territorial Sport Organization was required to have an appeal process in place for athlete selection that was approved by the GNWT. Can the Minister confirm if this is correct and if each organization follows this process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable Member is correct that each Territorial Sport Organization is supposed to have a selection process. Within that, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, however, does not take part in the selection process. We do know that we are notified whenever an appeal is brought forward. I will make sure that all of the Territorial Sport Organizations do have an appeal process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that answer and the commitment to make sure that all Territorial Sport Organizations have a process and are following that process.

Mr. Speaker, living in the North, does the Government of the Northwest Territories and especially the department realize that weather can sometimes interfere with the schedule? Therefore, does the department have a contingency plan in place to ensure that athletes are given a fair opportunity to compete for a spot on the team? I.e. using modern technology, other personnel, et cetera, et cetera.

Unfortunately, I, too, felt really not at ease when I heard that the four youth from the MLA's region were not able to attend the games. There were other youth who were affected, as well. Sometimes when there are tournaments going on or children are out of the province, they often don't get to attend the trials, so it is an issue. With this one, the weather was a problem. We do ask Sport North and the Territorial Sport Organizations to try to accommodate whenever possible. We're reviewing at this point. Because of what happened, we're looking at different options that we can implement in the future so that fewer youth will not be able to attend to trials. We can't guarantee that every youth will make it to the trials, because there are all kinds of different reasons, but we will look at options to ensure that as many as possible can attend the trials. These are important to our youth.

I thank the Minister for that answer. Unfortunately, I knew this was what I was going to hear. It is very disappointing to hear this, as it seems that we would want to have a process in place, especially since I've seen things happen in the past because of weather. To ensure our athletes are given the opportunity to try out, will the Minister direct her department to work with the organizations who have been given the response to make up the Team NWT and the Territorial Sport Organization to come up with a contingency plan for the future games using technology and other personnel?

Yes, it was kind of dismaying for me to hear that, all of these years that we have been providing the multisport games, this has been an issue, so I have made it a priority that we will look at options, like I had said earlier, that we need to make sure as many children as possible, as many youth as possible, have a chance for these games. These sometimes change people's lives, and so it is critical that we look at this and we make it a priority, so I will make it a priority to make sure that we look at all available options so that more youth can attend the trials, at least, for the games.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I greatly appreciate the Minister for that commitment in trying to work with our poorer athletes. It is greatly appreciated, and I know it is not going to help the athletes who did not make it this year, but I mean it is a positive step moving on. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister direct the department to reimburse the athletes for the registration fee and other transportation costs these athletes incurred but who did not get the chance to compete for a spot on Team NWT?

The transportation costs, Sport North was already covering these transportation costs to get into the trials. Unfortunately, some of the youth decided to take alternative transportation to try to make it, and my understanding is that, if they would have stayed in place, they might have actually made the trials because the weather was better in that community the next day. So we will not reimburse the travel expenses, but we will reimburse the registration fees that these youths paid because it is not fair that we charged them registration and they could not attend. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about the justice system. I would like to ask the Minister of Justice questions. I would like to ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, if the Department of Justice is working with other departments to reduce Indigenous inmate population? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Justice.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, the department of course recognizes that there is an over-representation of Indigenous people in our facilities, and we are working with other departments to find ways to reduce that over-representation. Now, the current committee of Cabinet structure brings together all social development Ministers and deputies to collaborate and discuss cross-departmental work to provide a collaborative approach on social issues, so we are working with other departments hopefully to reduce this rather shocking figure.

I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to directing the Department of Justice to lead a government working group -- I am not speaking of the Ministers but maybe of a lower level of working group -- to incorporate some changes to reduce the Indigenous inmate population.

There are currently many interdepartmental working groups that focus on social program issues, such as the integrated case management interdepartmental working group, family violence working group, and therapeutic community steering committee, so there are interdepartmental working groups already working in this area on the federal-provincial-territorial side. We are also working nationally as the federal government rolls out its strategic action plan to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people. So we are working both within our government and with other governments.

The social development committee has been working on this whole Justice file, of course, from the beginning. I would like to ask the Minister if he would work with the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation so that inmates are not released into homelessness?

Yes, we recognize that the reintegration of inmates back into the communities is an important part of the corrections service, and certainly we can work with Housing. However, as you know, there is a shortage of housing in the Northwest Territories, and, while we work with inmates who are being released as they go back into the communities, we cannot guarantee that they can jump the queue, if I can put it that way. So there is a shortage of housing. We do attempt to assist them.

Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have spoken to former inmates, some who have long records and long incarceration backgrounds. Particularly two adult formal inmates indicate to me that the biggest help that they had while they were incarcerated was working with mental health workers. I would like to ask the Minister if he could commit to looking at increasing the number of mental health workers, I guess, maybe working with the Department of Health or on their own to have mental health workers in the correction facilities to work with the inmates? Thank you.

There are currently two registered psychologists at the North Slave Correctional Centre and one registered psychologist at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. Fort Smith Correctional Centre is currently in the staffing process for a counsellor. Now, the majority of people who are in the facilities are there for less than 90 days and many for less than 30 days. So we will make efforts to ensure that all inmates are aware of the mental health resources that are available to them. So, again, we do have, currently, registered psychologists at two of the institutions, and we are hoping to staff at Fort Smith Correctional Centre. Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Mahsi. Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement to the Minister of Infrastructure, my first question: can the Minister of Infrastructure explain what benefits the Sahtu region has seen from the Sahtu regional health and long-term care facility? Mahsi.

Minister of Infrastructure.