The chronic lack of probation officers in Nunavut came up in the legislature again this week when Justice Minister Keith Peterson was questioned about the issue and conceded that fewer than half of the territory's 25 communities have full-time officers on duty.

The fact that some communities don't have local probation officers has been an issue for much of Nunavut's 10-year history as a territory.

Peterson said there are currently 14 to 15 corrections officers serving 11 communities, which is an improvement over past years.

"In the first [legislative] assembly, I think there might have been eight, and then [in] the second assembly, there was 12," Peterson said outside the legislature on Monday.

The Justice Department faces the same challenges when hiring and retaining probation officers that other government departments face when trying to recruit skilled workers to remote northern communities.

In communities where no probation officer is present, social workers step in, Peterson said.

But that is of little consolation to High Arctic MLA Ron Elliott, who said neither one of the two communities in his constituency — Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord — has social workers.

As a result, parolees in those communities have to phone out to other communities.

Peterson conceded that a lack of probation officers might be a contributing factor to the high number of offenders who breach their probation orders.

"I can't answer that definitively. It may contribute," he said.