Mr. Speaker, as I have told Mr. Pudluk and Mr. Pudlat, who have also expressed concerns about RCMP staffing in communities in their constituencies, at the moment I am in the midst of intense discussions with the RCMP, both in headquarters in the Northwest Territories and at the national level, over the deployment of staff in the Northwest Territories. These discussions are aggravated by financial restraint, Mr. Speaker, but financial resources are not the only problem I am facing with the RCMP. There is some disagreement, in my view and the view of the RCMP, about how the existing person years should be distributed between large and small communities in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, all this background is to say that these discussions are still under way. I regret that they are not resolved. I know there is a lot of anxiety in communities like Pelly Bay about what is going to be in place this coming year. There is a need to resolve the question quickly because of the need to got transfers taking place in the summer when they ordinarily occur, but at the moment we are still at odds, and I regret I cannot give the Member a definitive answer. I have taken the matter up with the commissioner of the RCMP for Canada, who will be visiting the Northwest Territories later this summer, and I am hoping it can be resolved soon because it is urgent that it be resolved. But at the moment, I have no clear answer that I can give to the honourable Member on that situation in Pelly Bay. I am sorry. Thank you.