Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senior officials of government, when sitting in at meetings with the MLAs or Ministers, all pretty much service a similar purpose. That is to be there as resource people, to be there for assistance and guidance when asked. I would think that there is, in fact, a difference between participating when asked and being involved in political discussions. I would say that there is some natural constraint there.

Thank you. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. We are examining the Department of Justice, directorate. It has nothing to do with a note. Mr. Minister will you care to respond.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The question was asked in a different way earlier. I did say that I understand that the Premier, if he has not done so already, will very soon be supplying the Member for Hay River with information by letter on what he had committed to in the House about that particular meeting.

Thank you. Directorate. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I explained in the House the other day, the RCMP is an independent body, although we are connected in that we administer the contract with them, we have no authority or control over how the RCMP conducts its business or how it investigates. The previous Minister of Justice did give an update to the House on what the RCMP had said about the status of the investigation and that is, that it was ongoing. That is all that I can give.

Thank you. Directorate. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Do you have MOU, Mr. Minister?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask the deputy minister to clarify that point. To make it clear once again, the GNWT, through the Department of Justice, does not have control or authority on how the RCMP conducts its investigations. As I said in the House the other day, it is the federal government's Department of Justice that is in charge of the prosecution office which they run here in Yellowknife. The GNWT Department of Justice has nothing to do with it. But with the other part of the question, perhaps Mr. Cooper could answer it.

Thank you. Would you expand from here, Mr. Cooper?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The relationship between the department and the RCMP is governed not by written protocol, but more or less by convention which would obtain not only here but in every province of Canada and probably Australia and England and all the commonwealth countries. The way it works is that it is quite legitimate for us to suggest to the RCMP that we feel it is important that they, for example, dedicate more effort, more of their resources to something like aboriginal policing, restorative justice or that we feel that it is important to increase the size of the economic crime unit because of a rash of frauds or something like that.

We do not ever become involved in active investigations or cases. We would never make any suggestion to the RCMP whatsoever as to how they should conduct an investigation. They do, as a courtesy, inform me often that certain investigations are going on. The reason for that is that the senior legal officer in the land, the Attorney General for the Northwest Territories, has an interest in knowing about some investigations that are going on. The one involving this government really did not come to light until the fact of that investigation was made public, I think by CBC or the newspapers. I hope that answers the Member's question. Thank you.

Thank you. The Member's time is up. I have Mr. Erasmus who has not spoken yet at this time and Mr. Steen who has not spoken. Mr. Picco and Mr. Krutko, because they have spoken, they are down the list, although they are on the list. We will be taking a break very soon. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the Minister's opening comments, he indicated that no reductions are proposed in the previous year's main estimates. He does not indicate if there is an increase. We know that every year there are supplementary appropriations, just as there was this year. Did this department receive more funding under supplementary appropriations this year?

Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It was not too long ago, several months ago, that the Department of Justice, through a rebasing effort from the Financial Management Board, received an extra $983 thousand to deal with deficiencies, I believe mostly in the corrections area.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Was that reflected in a previous supplementary appropriation?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand that was included in supplementary number three that has been passed through this House.