Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the most obvious benefits to this government assuming responsibility for prosecutions will be in the ability we will have to give policy direction to that office. For instance, at the present time, there is a limitation in ability of federal officials who carry out the functions of the office of prosecutors. They get their direction from Ottawa. So when we are pursuing

more community control, more community direction in the area of Justice, there is an anomaly with the people who are players in that forum.

We cannot give any direction to that part of the Justice system that, for instance, lays charges and decides on the way in which justice can be performed because they work and get direction from the federal government. So we are trying to move towards more localized decision-making by communities, certainly by the people of the Northwest Territories. Unless we bring that function closer to home, we believe there will continue to be a serious limitation on the flexibility and the sensitivity that is needed to be brought into that element.

There is also an example that we have given in recent days, should the proposed Firearms Act, brought in by Allan Rock, be passed into law, that while as a Legislature we should continue to push for less punitive and severe penalties to be placed on those people who break the law as set out in legislation, we will also benefit from having this government assume the powers of prosecution by giving us the flexibility to decide where the law should be severely imposed and where there should be some flexibility imposed. Again, there is an example where that could not be done from an office in Ottawa. Thank you.