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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
There are 12 Northerners entering the NWT's workforce as corrections officers. Recruits celebrated their graduation from the Northern Recruit Program with family and the justice minister during a ceremony at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre last week.

Darcy Moshenko leads 12 new corrections officer graduates in an oath as they celebrate the completion of the Northern Recruit Program at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre Friday afternoon. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

Yellowknife's Don Cameron delivered the graduates' address at the ceremony, and it was clear how much the program means to him.

"I think it was the pride in the accomplishment, the work that we went through. It's always tempered by somebody saying, 'It's only six weeks.' But the intensity and the amount of information, the camaraderie, the unique environment that we were in; it all comes together and it gets a little emotional sometimes," said Cameron.

"You start realizing what you've done and find some pride in what you've done, and seeing my family out there in the audience, it touched me. It was good."

Cameron said he had been interested in taking the program for years, having a background with youth through both the welfare and education systems.

"I wanted to move into corrections on the youth end of things," said Cameron.

He said his goal is to enter the corrections workforce as a relief worker before entering corrections full- time after his children graduate school.

Darcy Moshenko, a project training and development officer with the Department of Justice, taught the graduates self-defence and arrest and control techniques. He said he was impressed with the recruits.

"It was very positive all around. They have learned a lot. Before, the hiring up in the Northwest Territories wasn't always to train somebody homegrown for corrections," said Moshenko.

Moshenko had to go to Manitoba to receive his training, which was before the NWT program was launched in 2009.

"To have people trained up here just made so much sense."

Justice Minister Glen Abernethy said it has at times been difficult to find Northerners to do the work at home.

"We've got a lot of Northerners in the Northwest Territories who are looking for work and we want to make sure we have Northerners in Northern jobs. Northerners understand the realities of living and working in the Northwest Territories. So we want people with a real understanding of the realities in the Northwest Territories," he said.

The graduation comes ahead of a vote on the federal Bill C-10, titled the Safe Streets and Communities Act. Abernethy said his department is still trying to figure out how the passage of the bill will impact corrections in the NWT.

"We do have some concerns. Bill C-10 is about being tough on crime and we understand that and we agree with some aspects of the bill, but we do have some concerns that would increase the number of people being incarcerated. Right now, we're just trying to quantify what that means ... We're still trying to quantify what those effects may be," said Abernethy.

The Northern Recruit Program has graduated 64 corrections officers since it started.

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