Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

This will be my last comment. I would like to express my support and appreciation for the R.C.M.P. and the government to have this cost shared arrangement. It is part of the affirmative action we keep pushing for, and it is a very visible force of individual who people see on a daily basis, and I express my support for the program, and to all the special constables who are enrolled and are taking part in the policing of our communities. Mahsi.

Thank you. Police services. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On police services, one of the departmental goals is that the people of the Northwest Territories are protected through adequate police services. As stated in one of the books here, it is one of the goals of the Department of Justice. With the policing services, and the amount of money that we are talking about here, $23.980 million, the people that I represent in my constituency, and there are six communities, only two of these communities have police services. They are Fort Simpson, and Fort Liard. There used to be a police service station in Wrigley, but they have been pulled out of that community because of funding, not enough funding to provide for a position.

Recently there was an announcement that, some of the communities that did not have R.C.M.P. in them, are going to have R.C.M.P. members placed in these communities. I was disappointed, because Wrigley has been asking for an R.C.M.P. to be posted there for quite awhile. There was not any police service placed there.

The other concern is that the community of Fort Liard had lost one member, they had three, and now they just have two. The community of Liard also has concerns that, with the decrease to two, it will be very difficult for the R.C.M.P. members out of Liard to perform their duties adequately. I say this because Fort Liard is a community next to one of the entrances into the Northwest Territories, via a highway out of B.C. There is a need sometimes to patrol the highway. With one less member there, I am told by the community, that it is going to be very difficult for two members to do all of this type of work.

I am addressing the lack of adequate police services, as stated as one of your goals. If the Minister would want to comment on these two particular communities of mine, that lack adequate police service at this present time.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is certainly a problem there, the situation is that people want adequate police service. The situation in Wrigley cannot be solved at this present time, but as you say, there might be different ways of solving that problem, if the community could build a building, somehow get it financed, and make some arrangements to have it leased to the R.C.M.P. That might be a way of solving part of the problem, and getting a member in there. That is what I understand.

That problem could be worked on in the longer term, but the immediate term is that if a member cannot be put there, then the level of adequate police service has to increase to these smaller communities. We have Wrigley now with no police, Jean Marie, Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake; four communities with no police there. The way it works, I understand, is that there is a detachment in Simpson that has a few members, and anytime there is a problem, and one of these members is available, they will go into these smaller communities.

Likewise, in Fort Liard, they have two members to take care of the community and these other small communities as well. Even in the communities where there are detachments, I hear some complaints that at some hours when there is trouble, it is very difficult to get hold of a member, because their calls are forwarded to Yellowknife. It is very frustrating for people in communities, where the members live in the communities, and they have to talk to somebody in Yellowknife before they get some response.

That level of adequate police service has to increase. If you are going to take members from communities, and not increase the level of police response, then something is definitely wrong. I think, maybe, the Minister, and his department officials, should take a really close look at this particular area, and see if the level of adequate police service could increase, to the satisfaction of people in the communities.

What I am saying, if you have not heard me, Mr. Minister, while you are talking there, that if the level of service response could increase to make up for the members that pull out of the communities, that would help. At the present time, there are a lot of complaints that, when people do call, they are talking to somebody in Yellowknife, before they are talking to a member in the community. Something has to be done about that.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Police services, total O and M $23.980 million. Mr. Ningark.

Thank you. I do have a similar problem in Pelly Bay, as my colleague, Mr. Antoine. About two years ago we used to have one R.C.M.P. officer in the community who was based permanently, but about a year ago he was transferred somewhere, because the force did not have enough money to cover that community.

The problems we have faced in Pelly Bay since we lost the R.C.M.P. officer, is that when a crime is committed, then a person has to make a long distance call to Spence Bay in order to get that alleged crime investigated. It will usually take another two weeks, sometimes, before the officer comes to investigate the crime. We know that we would really like to have the R.C.M.P. investigate the crime while the evidence is still hot. Even while the evidence is simmering down, but at this point in time, now it takes until the ice has frozen over before they come.

Now, I know the situation is bad. I know we do not have the money to base R.C.M.P. officers in the smaller communities. I know the R.C.M.P. officers have to work through there, whatever you call that system -- satellite, but, I would like the Minister to tell us when will he be able to get some answers from the department, as to when we will see the R.C.M.P. permanently stationed in our communities? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Police services, Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, just one observation, and that is I think most of the trends with regard to crime do not happen during the normal working hours of the people. That is when everybody works, including the R.C.M.P., and I am just wondering why this government, pays for the R.C.M.P. services up here, and does not address what the trends are in those communities, and which crimes are being committed?

If we are in the business of prevention, too, I think one of the preventions is just the fact that the presence of R.C.M.P. in the community does prevent crime from happening, and when you do not have them, or if you have them present only during normal working hours, and not during the evenings, or early mornings, then that is when things do tend to happen.

So, I do not know whether, or not, the R.C.M.P. are basing their operation on normal working hours, or whether they are basing their duties to reflect when crime is most likely to happen. I realize that we could look at statistics to determine that, but I do not know why that is not part of the determining factor on when an R.C.M.P. should be carrying out his duties.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Mr. Gargan.

Well, I appreciate the response, but I think, just like Mr. Antoine, we do run into that same situation where people, tell me to phone the R.C.M.P., or they want to use my phone to call the R.C.M.P., even as early as 9:00 p.m. in the evening. You are switched immediately to Yellowknife.

So, I do not know. Maybe, again, that is the time when the R.C.M.P. feel there is not a crime, that based on their statistics there is nothing happening around that time of day. I do not know. I just thought I would bring it up.

Thank you. Mr. Minister. Mr. Minister, you have many responses to Mr. Gargan, on police service. I have here on the list Mr. Pudlat.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman. While we are on the topic of police services, the funding that has been cut for the police services. We are aware, ever since we can remember the R.C.M.P. has been around, and a lot of time when we were kids we were afraid to see cops.

In one of my constituencies there are two policemen, and there is sufficient accommodation, and it has been mentioned that they might take away the policemen in the community of Lake Harbour. I wonder if the Minister of Justice can reassure me, that they will not take the R.C.M.P. from our community, because I have heard rumours that they might, and it is one of the first communities ever to get R.C.M.P.

Before, they had policemen in Iqaluit, or Cape Dorset, because some people are sort of expecting that the police will leave our community. I know we are always short of funding, and it is getting harder to fund them. I wonder if he can reassure me that the police will stay in Lake Harbour? Thank you.