Mr. Chairman, I will ask Ms. Schofield to reply to that specific question.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Ms. Schofield.

Thank you, Ms. Schofield. Mr. Bell.

Thank you. So, there are a couple of hurdles here then, potentially. I suppose we could potentially, maybe likely, be refused at the Treasury Board level. I am wondering if the Minister can indicate, in recent years, maybe the last five or ten, when we've gone back for additional resources to the federal government, if they have ever turned us down on a funding request for additional police resources.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Ms. Schofield.

Thank you. Mr. Bell.

Thank you for that clarification. I am sure we have our work cut out for us and I know that Social Programs will be supporting additional policing resources if the Minister comes forward, as he indicates, with a request in June. I wonder if the Minister would be prepared to share with committee the business case the RCMP are making for resourcing and funding levels in the Northwest Territories. Can we get a copy of that submission and proposal? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would address his question specifically by saying that I would like to have the opportunity to review it myself first and to get an analysis done of what the requirements are. As I said, I have received it very recently and I haven't had a chance to absorb it in depth, and I would like to have a chance to review it and get back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Bell.

Okay. I will await a formal response and I can appreciate that the Minister hasn't had time, just receiving it, to go through this in-depth. I think I would be most interested in seeing it if it were to come with the potential request that he is coming forward with in June. So, if we could have both documents at that time, it would allow committee to see exactly what kind of a case the RCMP were making and how far we were prepared to come in meeting them. So I will await the Minister's response on that formally.

The other question I have is about wilderness inmate camps and their success rate and their operations. I know in past, we did a review of the amounts of money paid to camp operators because operators had approached the department and suggested that it wasn't viable for them with the current per diem. We did raise the per diems in some measure to try to address this concern. I am wondering if we are having any more concerns about the adequacy of these per diem rates raised with the department by the operators.

Thank you. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will seek the Chair's permission to allow Shirley Kemeys-Jones, the assistant deputy minister to respond to that question.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Ms. Shirley Kemeys-Jones.

Thank you. Mr. Bell.

Okay. I know they have been in the past and one of the revelations that was interesting for me was that camp operators end up, at times, paying inmates for various chores and had to use some of that per diem money to do so. I wonder if this meets official department policy and whether or not camp operators have the freedom to make determinations on how much they are going to pay for certain chores, these types of things. It struck me as strange in the first place that they would even be able to do that and I thought that might point to some of the problem with being able to adequately fund the camps if the per diems, which were not originally meant for paying out these stipends for various chores, were having to accommodate that as well, I could see why they were coming up short. I wonder if the Minister can give me an indication whether this is official policy, whether he was aware that this was going on and what we are currently doing about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Ms. Kemeys-Jones.

Thank you. Mr. Bell.

I guess my question would be whether or not then, since the department is aware this is going on, the department approves this additional salary being paid to those inmates who are cooking and cleaning for, in effect, themselves and any other camp attendees. If you weren't aware that it was going on, how do we know it's $2.50 for cooking and not $40 a day for cooking or $20 a day for cooking or something of this nature? Inmates do have a choice as to which camps they go to, so certainly it's a competitive environment for inmates if you are trying to make a go of a camp. I ask the question again if the department approves of this practice and, if so, how can they be certain this is the actual amount being paid?

Thank you. Ms. Kemeys-Jones.