Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of the two young people is a very incredible situation, and it's certainly horrible for the young people and their families. I am terribly sympathetic to that, but I have an issue here where there's a person who has been charged with an offence. It's an alleged offence and for the Minister of Justice to be talking about a case while it's before the courts is completely wrong.
So I can speak in general about the issue of what we're trying to do about crime in the Northwest Territories. I have met with the chief superintendent of the RCMP and discussed with him the issues that we face with crime in the Northwest Territories. The Member raised some of the issues about the increase in the amount of crime. It's not just in Yellowknife; it's all across the Northwest Territories. We have the second-highest crime rate in Canada. It is an issue of concern to me.
One of the ways we're hoping to address that is to respond to the RCMP's business plan which called for an increase in the number of officers, and hopefully we will be able to see through that some way to address it. Not only that, but the department has funded one RCMP position to work in the city of Yellowknife with agencies like the Community Wellness Coalition to help deal with issues of public safety. There are a number of different programs that are active in the community. The Citizens on Patrol program is going to be in operation fairly soon; there are a number of other ones.
Members can be assured that I am very concerned about the crime rates in the Northwest Territories. I can't speak specifically about any one case that's currently before the courts though. I will do my best to make sure that we can address the issue of the rising crime rate.