The new federal budget is allocating funds to hire at least one new judge in the Yukon.

The Liberal government released its budget last Wednesday. It contains a number of funding proposals related to justice across the country.

This includes $55 million over five years and $15.5 million per year thereafter, as well as legislative amendments, to hire 28 new federally appointed judges across Canada.

Alberta and the Yukon are specifically mentioned as jurisdictions that will benefit from the new positions.

But it remains unclear how many judges and what funding the territory will receive. Also uncertain is whether a new judge in the Yukon will be for the territorial or supreme level court.

Currently, the territory has two supreme court justices and three territorial judges, with other judges visiting for cases as needed.

Ian McLeod, a spokesperson for the federal Department of Justice, said in an email to the Star that the funding is meant “To help respond to workload pressures facing many courts,” and that “This includes specific positions for courts in Alberta and the Yukon, to address their demonstrated immediate need for additional judges.”

But McLeod said details on the implementation of the proposed funding have not yet been determined.

He added that, “The government will continue to work with requesting jurisdictions to understand, assess and respond to their requests.”

Keeping with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s commitment to feminism, the budget also proposes to invest $100.9 million over five years and $20.7 million per year thereafter to establish a National Strategy to Address Gender-Based Violence.

The budget notes, “Violence affects people from all backgrounds, with indigenous women, children and youth, and LGBTQ2 and gender non-conforming people at greater risk of experiencing gender-based violence.”

The strategy will create a centre of excellence within Status of Women Canada to better align existing resources, as well as measures to be implemented by the RCMP and Department of National Defence.

“We’re really excited to see the commitment, particularly the financial commitment the government is making,” said Kirsten Madsen, acting director of the Yukon Women’s Directorate.

“The fact that they are really putting some resources and kind of a shared understanding of the importance of this issue is great news.”

While more details on the strategy have yet to be released, Madsen said, Maryam Monsef, the federal minister of the Status of Women, has reached out to provincial and territorial ministers to discuss this aspect of the budget.

“We’re hoping to talk about the situation in the Yukon,” explained Madsen.

She noted that the directorate and Monsef have a good working relationship.

Jeanie Dendys, the minister responsible for the territorial Women’s Directorate, recently attended a United Nations event on the status of women in New York with Monsef.

The Yukon experiences some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the country.

In 2011, the Yukon’s rate of violence against women was four times the national average, and the rate of sexual offences against women was more than 3.5 times the provincial average.

On how the new strategy will affect the territory, Madsen said, “I think we’ll know more when more details come out on the specifics, but for now, we’re pleased with the commitment.”

The budget also makes commitments to address the overrepresentation of indigenous people in the Canadian criminal justice system.

This includes $55.5 million over five years and $11.1 million per year ongoing to the Indigenous Justice Program (formerly the Aboriginal Justice Strategy).

The program provides funding for community-based programs that use restorative justice approaches as an alternative to corrections. It currently supports 197 community-based programs and in 2014-15 had about 9,000 referrals.

The Liberals have also proposed $65.2 million over five years and $10.9 million thereafter to help previously incarcerated indigenous people heal, rehabilitate and find good jobs.

This is significant as in 2015-16 in the Yukon, indigenous people accounted for 62 per cent of adults under correctional supervision.

The provincial/territorial average for the same year was 26 per cent, and federally, 27 per cent of adults under correctional supervision were indigenous.

Comparatively, in 2011, indigenous people made up only 23 per cent of the total population of the Yukon and four per cent of the total Canadian population.

Other highlights in the budget related to justice include:

• $107.8 million over five years to deliver provincial and territorial family justice services;

• $81.6 million over five years starting 2018-19 to address the most immediate needs of indigenous police forces;

• $57.8 million over five years to expand mental health care capacity for federal inmates;

• $62.9 million over five years to enhance the delivery of immigration and refugee legal aid services;

• $2.7 million over five years to the Canadian Judicial Council to support programming on judicial education, ethics and conduct; and

• $2 million over two years to the Courts Administration Service to enhance the federal court’s ability to make decisions available in both English and French.

More details on budget spending and how it will affect the Yukon are expected in the upcoming months.

Yukon Justice Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee could not be reached for comment before this afternoon’s press deadline.

And a representative from the Yukon Department of Justice said they could not comment on the federal budget at this time.