Thank you, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to put this in some context in relation to our fiscal situation. It's always difficult to try to appropriate sufficient funds to support all of our government's initiatives and certainly that doesn't prevent us from having to deal with the RCMP staffing issue. We have been working from an official level with the chief superintendent's office to try to find appropriate solutions over the last several years. I must admit it must be hard going to try to work within the original policing agreement. As Minister, I also had the privilege last spring of meeting with the chief superintendent on a similar issue. As well, I have been in communication with our lead officials and keeping up to date. Recognizing that they say that there is a manpower shortage, which has been acknowledged, we were also awaiting the final results of their audit. So we are now in the process of seeing what those preliminary results are and furthering some discussion on it. Again, I reference the fact that we are in a government-wide deficit and I am not sure how much we can even contemplate providing further support at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of follow-up questions on the basis of what the Minister has stated. First of all, I would like to know if the funding for the RCMP detachment in Yellowknife is 100 percent funded by the GNWT? The second question is, the Minister mentioned a feasibility study that has been concluded. That raises more questions for me because it's tough to fathom that the Minister might not be aware of the need already because we know this has been an ongoing issue for many, many years. The Social Programs committee pointed out that at least for the last two years, the department has been engaged in negotiations. So, to be doing a feasibility study on something that's that old, I'm going to need an explanation on that. I guess related to that is, the Minister states on page 3, "We anticipate these discussions will be completed within the next two months and plan to come forward with a request for additional resources." At the same time, the Minister is stating there are not enough resources, he's doing a study. But, what makes him think the he could get this done in two months? So, there are three questions there I would like answered. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll provide an answer for two now and then I will rely on my deputy minister to answer the third in respect to the percentage of our funding for the police. First of all, I want to refer back to the response to the committee's report where they state that their statistics, I must say, should rely on that. If we are spending time responding to 5,000 pick ups for public intoxication, then, certainly that is to be acknowledged and that's the type of work expected of the police force, certainly we know that it is their overall goal to achieve more funding for more policing. However, I think we need to be aware, as well, that our fiscal reality, and I am going to emphasize that if I may, Mr. Chairman, is going to, perhaps, limit us as to what we can possibly do in the next coming year. We want to further that discussion with the chief superintendent so that we are on the same page. I believe we need to ascertain our position and so, like I said, we will probably need two to three months to discuss fairly eloquently with them to give them some certainty that this is an issue from both their and our prospective. So, with that Mr. Chairman, I would like to call upon your permission to allow the deputy minister to respond to the Member's question about the funding we provide under the RCMP agreement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Cooper.

Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Ms. Lee.

Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I don't believe I still have a clear answer from the Minister as to why...Okay, let me just put this another way. This has been an ongoing issue for a very long time, I used to work in justice years ago when this was an issue so, I can't imagine the Minister needing any more information to figure out whether or not there is a need for this. Is that still a problem or has the Minister not come to the conclusion that the RCMP detachment in Yellowknife needs more resources? Can he tell me that, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Minister Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe we are acknowledging that there is a need based on the socio-economic factors that impacts the Northwest Territories as well as those growing communities. We're saying we just need to further the discussion to ascertain what level of funding we can develop legitimately try to address the overall issue and the requirements for further resources and I'm just ascertaining the point at which we need to further that discussion with 'G' division based on the preliminary reports. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, could I ask the Minister whether or not he has gone to the Cabinet for any additional resources for the RCMP in his time as a Minister?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Minister Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I articulated in my address that we have established RCMP training positions and we have secured funding for those positions which were to be in the detachments in Wha Ti, Holman and Paulatuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for that answer from the Minister but I'm interested in the resource funding in the RCMP Yellowknife detachment. Could I ask the Minister whether or not he's ever brought this issue, whether by a FMB submission or any other submission, to either Cabinet or FMB during his time as a Minister?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have discussed it on a number of occasions in a general sense, not specifically related to Yellowknife. But I will ask Ms. Schofield, just to give you a quick overview of the level of funds we have attempted to secure. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Ms. Schofield.

Thank you, Ms. Schofield. The Chair will recognize Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also have a couple of questions about, first of all, the policing resources and I'm wondering if the Minister can explain to me, I appreciate the 70/30 typical funding split but I'm wondering, if in effect, we just took a random number and determined that we needed resources for an additional 3 police officers in Yellowknife, would it still be up to the federal government to approve that funding or do they automatically put in the 30 percent when we come up with the 70 percent. Can the Minister explain to me how that works? Thank you.