In the comments I was making, I wasn't really putting them in the context of Yellowknife, which is quite a large centre, but more with the smaller communities which I think, in many ways, have a more manageable grasp because of their size and informal relationship everyone has with each other at the community level to grapple with the causes of the problems that lead us to ask for additional policing resources.
I've said on many occasions that I believe communities like Wrigley and some of the smaller communities that do not have a police presence -- and because of some of the social problems like alcohol and drug abuse, and family violence -- that, for the sake of the women, children, and old people in communities like that, we have to make every effort to make sure there is a police presence in those communities, just so people feel safe at night, so they can feel safe in their homes when some of the weekend partying goes on, and so they feel safe to walk out and about their community.
I'm not saying that there are great problems in places like Wrigley, but I just raise it as an example of a community that should have a police presence. On the other hand, we know that the Members from Yellowknife have been saying for some time that Yellowknife is severely under-resourced for the needs they have. I accept that, but I have no way to quantify it. I don't really have a basis on which to talk to the RCMP and to
provide suggestions to the legislature about what to do about it.
The smaller communities that I pointed out earlier are predominantly aboriginal in population. They will have access to some of the First Nations aboriginal policing programs. There is an increasing number of members of the RCMP who are aboriginal who wish to be stationed in the communities. There are programs becoming available that will assist more communities to meet their needs. We will take that into account when we do this review. Thank you.