This is page numbers 3131 - 3164 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was know.

Topics

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Does committee agree that consideration of the Legislative Assembly is now complete?

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.

Committee, we're going to take just a short couple minute break for the Minister of Justice to have his witnesses. Thank you.

---Recess

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

All right. I'll call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we will now consider the Department of Justice. Does the Minister of Justice wish to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Yes, I do. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses.

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have Ms. Charlene Dolittle, deputy minister, and Mr. James Bancroft, director of corporate services.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Welcome. The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail in the tabled document?

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Committee, the Department of Justice begins on page 55. We will defer the departmental totals and review the estimates by activity summary beginning on page 56 with Corrections and information items on page 57. Questions? Member for Yellowknife North.

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Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I don't have a lot of issue with what is being proposed here, but I do have some general questions about the state of our Corrections infrastructure and see whether I can keep this within scope.

Specifically at North Slave, I note that the youth facility has very, very low "attendance" I think is not quite the right word. We don't put a lot of youth in jail anymore and we have a beautiful facility over there. I'm just wondering if the department is looking at reusing that or can share some insights on that. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Chair. So we need a facility to hold youth. Whether that is the current facility or we build a new facility, we do need somewhere. It's not really feasible to send youth away to Whitehorse or Edmonton. And I think we all know that the cost of constructing something new is a big upfront cost, and so our option would be to construct something new and then try and do something with this current facility that already exists and is pretty difficult to repurpose or to keep the facility as is.

So that's a long way to say that I wish there was an easy solution where we could say, yes, we have zero to two offenders in that unit at any given time, and we don't need that much space and we can do something else. But it's not an easy solution. Perhaps I can see if deputy minister wants to add anything to that. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Deputy Minister Doolittle.

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Doolittle

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the Member's correct, our numbers are low there, and I think that's a really good thing. The Youth Criminal Justice Act did bring in significant reforms in 2003 but, however, we still have to have, as the Minister mentioned, a place to -- when secure custody or open custody is ordered for youth, we need to have a place to have that. So we need both sides of the facility to do that, and it can't be sort of an open youth facility. Also, we cannot mix adults and youth and so that's another concern, we need to have adequate space for that as well. And as we do have new youth coming to our facility, there's also isolation terms as well when we bring people into our facility. So this space, especially during current COVID times, we do need the space at this moment. But the department is always looking at our numbers for youth and adults, and we'll try to use the facilities in the most efficient ways. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

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Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, and I guess, you know, I've -- when there's one youth inmate in there, it's almost -- like, I know it's a nice facility but it's almost a backwards way of being in solitary confinement in a giant facility. Andand you know, we're certainly not going to offer very elaborate programming for one to two offenders. Can I just get the Minister to elaborate on that point, that it's not feasible to send them to Whitehorse or Edmonton. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister of Justice.

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, and I wouldn't characterize it as solitary confinement in any way. There's often teachers in the facility to instruct students, or the -- I guess, yeah, they would be students, as if they were in school. There's, you know, guards who I know that they build relationships with. They might sit down and play a game of chess. So it's not like a solitary confinement situation. Perhaps the deputy minister can provide some more of what the Member's really looking for. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Deputy Minister Doolittle.

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Doolittle

Thank you Madam Chair. And I would certainly suggest that it wouldn't be ideal to remove youth from their communities from the Northwest Territories and send them to, you know, perhaps not just the Yukon but BC, Alberta too. So that's certainly not ideal and probably not in line with the reforms of the 2003 legislation. And as the Minister mentioned, there is significant programming in the youth facility as well. They're looking at new program and to sort of focus on criminogenic behavior as well. So this is something new, but they -- we do have a contract with ECE to provide educational programming. We try to do some on-the-land programming as well with the youth and other training as well and we can certainly, if the Minister would like us to, provide programs that are available to youth in our facilities. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

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Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess perhaps I'll have some more questions during the operations budget on the programming. Can the Minister give us an update of the current capacity of our correctional facilities and whether that's in percentage or number of spaces that are being used. I'll note, you know, we're a very small jurisdiction, and we have three prisons or, you know, five, I guess, if you count women's and youth, depending exactly how you count the facilities. How full are they, and just some justification for having so many prisons in such [Audio] territory. Thank you, Madam Chair.