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"Creating a Framework for the Wisdom of the Community:" Review of Victim Services in Nunavut, Northwest and Yukon Territories
Previous Page | Table of Content | Next Page 3.2 Services Available in Northwest Territories Communities3.2.1 Scope and MethodologyAt the outset of the research process, a decision was made by the parties sponsoring and undertaking the research to consult all victim-centred services and all social/educational services in NWT that deal with victimized people as part of their overall mandate. This decision reflects the reality of governance and social development in the NWT, which runs the gamut from relatively well developed services in the 6 largest centres (Yellowknife, Rae Edzo, Inuvik, Fort Simpson, Hay River and Fort Smith) to an almost complete lack of services, including resident policing and health care, in the very smallest communities. There are 30 communities in the Northwest Territories with a total population of 40,570 people.[73] As noted earlier, these communities are divided into six regions politically: Delta, Sahtu, Deh Cho, Dogrib, South Slave and North Slave or Yellowknife.[74] In recent years, each region has become increasingly autonomous in terms of responsibility for service delivery. Each region has its own health board and education board as well as other regionally focused and administered services. The regional authority in question receives its funding from the general revenues of the territorial government and is responsible and accountable to both the territorial government and its own regional boards. In some regions the health and education boards have amalgamated into “community services boards.” This administrative picture is made more complex by the advent of First Nation and Metis self-government agreements in every NWT region. As described earlier, these self governments and land claim settlement areas generally correspond to the regions listed above. (There are some exceptions as some communities and sub-regions are making their own separate, stand-alone land claim and self-government agreements). As these agreements move towards implementation, many social services are being further devolved from regional and territorial authority to Metis and First Nation governments. This process is just beginning but is already impacting the administration of service delivery as each region devolves its services in a variety of ways. Questions about the role and purpose of the public territorial government versus First Nation and Metis self governments are still being answered.[75] A number of other factors also complicate service delivery in the NWT. Although some communities have winter roads, there are permanent all weather roads to only 9 NWT communities, all in southern NWT. There is an all-weather road joining some Delta communities (Inuvik, Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson) to Dawson City and Whitehorse in the Yukon, but it is not useful in terms of NWT service delivery. This means that residents in the remaining 21 “fly-in” communities are unable to access the services present in larger centres, including the recovery, educational and training opportunities that would develop their capacity to build the needed services in their own communities. There is air service to every community, but it is expensive. This large number of small communities, spread over a large territory, with severe weather conditions, no road system and an increasing variety of governance and administrative structures makes consistent, effective service delivery to the general population, let alone to victimized people, extremely challenging. The resulting inconsistencies in services can be seen in the document Victim Services in the Territories: A Compilation of Contacts and Resources.[76] The capital Yellowknife, with a population of 18,028 (45% of the territorial population), has a relatively full range of services for the public, and for victims of crime. The smaller regional centres (Rae Edzo, Inuvik, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Fort Smith) have each developed some level of similar services. Yellowknife and the other 3 largest regional centres (Hay River, Fort Smith, Inuvik) contain 73% of the total territorial population. In these four communities, there are shelters for abused women and children, victim services programs, community-based counselling, mental health, social services and addictions programs, youth programs, food banks, hospitals, several schools, NGO advocacy, educational and social justice agencies. They have resident probation officers, regional justice coordinators, courtworkers, RCMP and easier access to lawyers and legal aid. Yellowknife and Inuvik have Crown Victim Witness programs. These four centres also have active community justice committees and most have correctional programs and various treatment facilities, which take referrals from the entire territory. All these centres have Aurora College (post secondary education) campuses. With these services in place, the four largest regional centres (Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Inuvik) have less trouble attracting long-term, qualified people to stay, or come, to their town to help build the social infrastructure. The other smaller regional centres (Rae Edzo and Fort Simpson) have somewhat fewer services than the larger centres but relatively easy access as they are both on the road system, and Rae Edzo is only an hour from Yellowknife. It is the 24 smallest communities, 21 of which are “fly-in” only, that have more difficulty maintaining consistently functioning basic services such as health care and education, let alone building the type of programming necessary to address the high levels of victimization in the NWT. The various governments (federal, territorial, First Nation, Inuvialuit and municipal) have attempted to address this situation in a variety of ways. The primary method has been to fly professional staff such as nurses, social workers, lawyers and others from a regional centre into the smaller communities on a regular monthly or weekly basis. Governments have also attempted to bring whole services, such as “mobile” addictions treatment programs into communities for several weeks at a time. They have also subsidized the training of local people in a variety of professional skill areas. These realities have implications in terms of conducting an inventory of territorial services for victimized people. The universal services are theoretically available to all residents, although they may not be available in their own community. In most cases victims residing in these smaller communities will have to travel to a regional centre or Yellowknife to access these services and the other services listed under each main regional centre in the inventory. This means that on a day-to-day basis the existing local service providers, namely schools, nursing stations, social services and some First Nation band offices/governments provide their mandated service, and whatever extra services they can manage, to the local population. (Remember that not every community has even these basic services.) As such a high percentage of the NWT population has a history of victimization, this means that service providers resident in the community, whatever their designated role, are providing the only available service to victims. As a result, the decision was made to contact schools, nursing stations, social service offices and First Nation and Inuvialuit social programs in the regional centres outside Yellowknife and in the 24 communities with limited services. Within Yellowknife only those services were contacted which offer either a universally available service, or a victim-centred program. A total of 29 key service providers from agencies, whose mandate is service to victimized people, were interviewed in person during April and May 2002.[77] As well, seven victims of crime were interviewed in person.[78] These respondents were from the following communities:
In addition, ten service providers, who offer a universal service that may include victimized people, were contacted by phone and email for a description of their service.[79] The inventory of all territorial services, whose mandate is not specifically service to victims, identified 141 service providers, from all 30 NWT communities, for contact. Of this total, responses were received from 111 territorial service providers.[80] The responses in each region and community are organized as follows: [81]
Contact numbers and other pertinent information were taken from several NWT directories focused on the provision of social service information. These directories include:
[73] The territorial government, which states that the NWT population is closer to 42,083, disputes this NWT Census Canada population figure. [74] The territorial government usually administers the Delta and Sahtu regions as one region and under a variety of names depending on the service in question: “Beaufort Delta,” “Inuvik Sahtu.” For the purposes of this inventory the 2 regions are listed together under the heading “Delta/Sahtu.” [75] First Nations and Metis negotiate their land claim and self-government agreements directly with the federal government, not the territorial government. [76] Victim Services in the Territories: A Compilation of Contacts and Resources, Mary Beth Levan, Ottawa: Policy Centre for Victim Issues and Research and Statistics Division, Department of Justice Canada, 2002. [77] See Appendix A for the names of these key service providers. [78] These interviews were confidential and so the names are not listed in Appendix A. [79] See Appendix B. [80] Each identified service was contacted for an interview up to 3 times. [81] There are 32 communities listed here. Enterprise and the Hay River Reserve are mostly administered by Hay River and are not usually counted as separate communities. In addition, the Hay River Reserve has some of its programs administered by the Deh Cho Region as the First Nations people on the reserve are of South Slavey descent. However, on a day-to-day basis, the Hay River Reserve is normally regarded as a South Slave Region community. [82] In Yellowknife, as noted earlier, only those services offering a victim-centred program were contacted. |
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