2nd-36th, Volume 46c - Committee of Supply - Other Appropriations

ABORIGINAL JUSTICE INITIATIVES

Mr. Chairperson (Marcel Laurendeau): Will the Committee of Supply please come to order. This section of the Committee of Supply will be considering the Estimates for AJI. Does the honourable minister have an opening statement? Does the critic from the official opposition party have an opening statement? No? I would remind all honourable members that the committee debate on--there is no Minister's Salary.

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Hon. Rosemary Vodrey (Minister of Justice and Attorney General): I was just informed we were moving to the Estimates of the Status of Women and so I went to--that was the information I just received from members opposite. Now if there has been--in the time that I went to inform the staff--change, then I think that it is only fair, should there be a comment made by the minister on AJI, that that opportunity should be available. I was informed that we were not doing AJI at this time; we were doing Status of Women.

Mr. Chairperson: There were no comments made on--if I could just have the committee--for one minute.

For the honourable minister's information, we cannot vary the way the Estimates are being done. We would have to conclude AJI. There have been no statements made on the AJI at this time. If the honourable minister so chooses, she can make a statement on it, but we were just going to pass through it.

The committee will recess for just five minutes.

The committee recessed at 11:12 a.m.

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After Recess

The committee resumed at 11:14 p.m.

Mr. Chairperson: Committee, come to order. The honourable minister with the opening statement.

Hon. Rosemary Vodrey (Minister of Justice and Attorney General): Mr. Chair, I believe it is important at the start of the Estimates discussion for the Aboriginal Justice line that some comments be put on the record about this government's continued movement in the area of the AJI recommendations.

First of all, in the area of Public Prosecutions, the movement towards the First Nations Policing Policy with aboriginal communities has continued. There have been consultations which have occurred with Justice officials and representatives of First Nations communities. I understand that 26 communities are currently in the process of conducting the required consultation within their respective communities. As I know it is well known, the First Nations Policing Policy is a tripartite agreement in which it does require the agreement of three parties: the federal government, the provincial government and also the First Nations community.

We also have a DOTC policing which was negotiated under the tripartite agreement. We have AJI initiatives that we are pursuing in partnership and some with the federal government and communities and others with communities themselves. The Hollow Water Community Holistic Circle Healing is a unique and innovative approach. We also have developed a sentencing circle process for Waywayseekappo that involves community elders in sentencing recommendation process.

In the Justice division in the area of Legal Aid, I think members are aware of the northern paralegal project where three paralegals fluent in Cree and English are based out of Thompson and The Pas. These paralegals fly into communities in advance of the court party to help improve the quality of services being provided by duty counsel and interviewing clients and filling out legal aid applications and interviewing witnesses and preparing criminal docket matters for lawyers.

We also have the Aboriginal Centre law office, the Aboriginal Legal Services of Winnipeg. Legal Aid, in conjunction with the Aboriginal Legal Services of Winnipeg, has set up an office in the Aboriginal Centre, and I am happy to talk further about that as we move along.

In the Courts area, I would just like to highlight the Aboriginal Court Worker Program. This is a service provided for native people who become involved in the criminal justice system who need assistance or guidance, and the program workers act as liaisons with police and counsel or probation services. They advise the accused of alternative courses of action and Legal Aid and contacting counsel, bail applications and also contacting relatives or social service agencies.

In terms of aboriginal magistrates and aboriginal magistrate recruiting, the department has 15 aboriginal magistrates who have jurisdiction over matters such as swearing documents, assessing fines according to the legislation and releasing or remanding into custody persons who are accused of having committed offences. Members are also, I believe, aware through Courts of the St. Theresa Point youth court and also through our Courts Division we are making efforts to recruit aboriginal employees, and that we do have aboriginal court initiatives where staff in Courts participate along with other members of the criminal justice system in a number of these Courts initiatives. The use of elders, sentencing circles, healing circles and the greater use of community involvement are becoming more commonplace.

In the area of Corrections, as I spoke about last year, we continue to involve both our staff in aboriginal training issues and also providing services for inmates in our institutions which deal with some of the special needs of aboriginal inmates, and the programming is quite extensive. We are also always making an effort to recruit aboriginal staff members, and then in the area of Corrections, as well, we have community participation agreements with aboriginal band councils and there are 21 native bands that currently have agreements with Community and Youth Corrections branch for the delivery of community correctional services in their communities.

With that, Mr. Chair, I believe that does cover each of the divisions, and I will be happy to speak more extensively about the offender programming that we have, the awareness programming that we have at the Manitoba Youth Centre and also some of the efforts made with staff to make staff more sensitive to the needs of aboriginal people. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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Mr. Chairperson: Does the critic from the official opposition party have an opening statement? No? Shall the item pass? The item is accordingly passed.

Resolution 27.1: RESOLVED that there be granted to Her Majesty a sum not exceeding $1,000,000 for the appropriations of Aboriginal Justice Initiatives for the fiscal year ending the 31st day of March, 1997.

This concludes this department. We will now move on to Status of Women.