(May 30, 2013) - Mr. Speaker, the people of the Northwest Territories know their needs and priorities and communities should take the lead on determining how to address issues, like community safety, that matter to them. The Department of Justice is committed to assisting communities and the NWT has been recognized throughout Canada as a leader in community-based initiatives like our community justice committees.
(March 8, 2013) - We’re taking applications for the Corrections Northern Recruit Training Program.
The summer session will be held in Fort Smith from June 20 - August 2.
http://www.gov.nt.ca/ontheair/archive/13-03-08.shtml
Megan Holsapple
Corporate Communications
Department of Executive, GNWT
(867) 873-7868
(March 7, 2013) - Mr. Speaker, to live in poverty in Canada is to live with insufficient and often poor quality food. It is to sleep in poor quality and/or unaffordable housing, in homeless shelters, or on city streets and parks. It means making difficult and painful decisions on a daily basis involving trade-offs, whether to pay the rent or feed the kids, pay the electric bill or go to the dentist, buy a new bus pass or forego socializing with friends.
(February 20, 2013) - Mr. Speaker, sustainable, vibrant, and safe communities is one of the goals of this Assembly. To help achieve this goal, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made it a priority for all NWT communities to have a community policing plan in place. Last year was the first year all 33 communities had dedicated plans in place based on their own needs, resources and priorities.
(February 14, 2013) - Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the success of Legal Aid’s Aboriginal Court Work Program. This program has existed for over 30 years, and the Court Workers were brought into the public service over a decade ago. Our nine court workers are present in the Visitor’s Gallery today.
(February 11, 2013) - Mr. Speaker, we are accepting participants into a new pilot healing program in Yellowknife for men who use violence in their lives against their intimate partners. This voluntary program is key to helping communities be sustainable, vibrant and safe. It is based on this Assembly’s main goal of believing in people and building on the strengths of northerners.
Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of our term, the 17th Assembly set a goal of an efficient and effective government.
This was clear direction, and we followed it. In June, I tabled the Department of Justice 10-Year Strategic Plan and I committed to bring forward a 5-year implementation strategy during this session. Later today I will table that document.
While the Strategic Plan outlines the Department’s vision, goals and priorities, the 5-year implementation strategy is the roadmap for how we are going to get there.
Mr. Speaker, this is a significant day for the Northwest Territories. Today, for the first time at any northern correctional facility, Commissioner Marie Wilson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is at the North Slave Correctional Centre to acknowledge residential school experiences, impacts and consequences.
Over the next several days, inmates can give individual statements to contribute to the historical records the Commission is gathering on the legacy of residential schools.
Mr. Speaker, we all have a role to play in stopping abuse from taking place in our homes. Unfortunately, family violence continues to be a significant concern.
We know violence in the homes of NWT residents is having long-term physical, social and economic impacts on family members, communities, and the territory as a whole.
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Thank you. I am honoured to be here today on behalf of Premier McLeod and the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Organizers are holding over one hundred Sisters in Spirit vigils across the country today to remember the missing and murdered Aboriginal women of Canada.
This year, the vigils have become an international event with ceremonies held in South America and the United States in honour of their Indigenous women who are missing and murdered.
