Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Member for the question. Public safety, as I said before, is paramount, and I think a lot of people in the Northwest Territories are feeling unsafe in their home communities right now. And that has to change. And for me that's an important priority for the next government but it is something that we all have to decide on how to move forward with that. We have to balance personal liberties and a humane way to treat people with the need for enhanced public safety, and that's a fine balance we have to strike when we roll out new legislation, especially around things that can take people out of their home. But I think we need to start with the Residential Tenancies Act. It hasn't been updated in a very long time. It's unclear where the rights and responsibilities of tenants lie, and far too much is left up to the rental officer to make decisions, which means we're depending on one individual to deal with a lot of these cases. And I think we can find some -- there's a whole bunch of areas that we need to change in the RTA anyways and that's a good place to start with that. We've heard the need for trespassing legislation from municipalities, from Members of this own House. That's something I support, and I think we need to move forward on. And, you know, we need to use our existing resources. We have a policing services agreement with the RCMP. We kind of leave it alone and don't give a lot of direction to the RCMP through that, and I think that needs to change. We need to have some service standards that are set up so we can actually direct the RCMP on the kind of results our communities are looking for. And we also have territorial sheriffs who are peace officers who could be empowered to do more work in our communities as well. So if the RCMP can't do it, we could be funding bylaw, we could be enhancing the powers of the sheriffs office. These are all options available to us on the table. So we have a way -- a path forward to solve these -- to create safer communities. And I think that starts by creating a department of public safety and emergency preparedness that can develop these options for this Assembly, and we can make informed decisions that are evidenced based and we'll get the best results for our communities and make people feel safe in their own homes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Kieron Testart on Questions by Members
On December 7th, 2023. See this statement in context.
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