Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we don't have the money in this budget to open a detachment or pay for the opening of a detachment by the RCMP in Sachs Harbour. I have met with the chief superintendent of the RCMP and discussed with him the community's desire. I know the chief superintendent is also aware of the community's interest in seeing the detachment open. I believe the RCMP are looking at all of the options that might be available to them, but to date I can't tell the Member that we have found a way that it can happen. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one follow up. It's good to see that you will be getting six new members and they will increase patrols. So let's hope they can organize more visits to Sachs Harbour. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Dent.

Madam Chair, that's one of the intentions of the increased number of RCMP as I mentioned in the opening comments. Some of the members will be stationed in communities like Inuvik and one of their functions will be to increase the numbers of patrols to the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of increased patrols to communities without resident RCMP, the Minister made a statement on page 2 of his opening comments. How does he plan to communicate that to the communities? Similar to Sachs Harbour, Colville Lake is also looking for some police patrols into the smaller community. Could the Minister give me some signals as to when the Sahtu can expect to see some concrete plans?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not sure when the new staff will come on stream, but the intention is the relief unit will be made up of people who will be able to increase the patrols to the smaller communities. When and where they happen will be entirely at the discretion of the RCMP. We do not have any say in that. I expect that the RCMP will be sensitive to the regional concerns and make those visits to communities as necessary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I have Mr. Yakeleya.

I appreciate the Minster's comments. I guess I'm looking for something more concrete. I am not sure if the Minister will give it to me today in terms of increased patrols to the one community in the Sahtu, Colville Lake. How soon can they expect to see some sort of plans? I know the Minister is probably in communication with the RCMP in terms of increased patrols into the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The RCMP have proposed that this is where they will be locating the increased staff because they know they need to make more patrols to small communities. I can't say which communities those will be. It will depend on what the RCMP see as the needs in the communities and they will make them according to what they see as the need in those small communities.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Minister. I guess sometimes we need to get the communities and the RCMP together because sometimes

what the RCMP sees as need is different than what the communities sees as need. I guess it's a matter of communication between RCMP and small communities such as Colville Lake. It's a matter of having them communicate with each other.

I want to move on to page 3 of his statement. He talks about federal funding to legal aid services. In his statement, he comments to allow lawyers and court workers to spend more time with clients in the communities before a court appearance. What is his definition as more time with clients? One day, two days, three days, one hour? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Five minutes would be more time, but I am hoping it would be more than that. The intent is to try and get the lawyers into the community, not just on the same day as the court party, but perhaps to get them in ahead of that so they can actually have a chance to meet with their clients before the court day itself. At this point, I can't predict exactly how much we are going to do. A lot of it is going to depend on the volume of cases and the timing of the court circuits. The goal here is to improve access to those who have to appear before court.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I hope that we have more than five minutes for our people before courts. The statement says working together making communities safer remains a priority for his department. I would like to somehow see this reflected into the main estimates. It seems there are serious concerns for the people that we have these fly-in lawyers and they come at the same time and spend as much time as they can, based on the finances of the department. They take off the same day and sometimes they don't even have interpreters there. Everything is done in English. Out of courtesy, some of the clients will go along with the lawyer. Sometimes you have only one translator and it's quite busy. So I just wanted to make note of that to the Minister. That's just a comment, Mr. Chairman.

The last comment I have is with the wilderness camp proposals and the comments from the Sahtu is there was a facility here in Yellowknife and they went to see if it was in line with the Minister's comments of working together to make communities safer as a priority. I am looking at some kind of a program in the smaller regions in terms of connecting and working together with inmates that have been out of the communities for awhile and integrating them back into the communities where they would be welcome back in, sometimes with open arms and sometimes not. I just want to make that comment. If the Minister wants to respond, I may have some more questions as we go through detail.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

With the last point the Member made, I am sure he will be interested to know that we have a program starting on the 29th of March at Tl'oondih Healing Camp which is intended to help reintegrate people back into their home region and it is being run with the community. So there's a lot of community involvement in the programming to try to do just that. This is a pilot project, so we are going to see how it works, but it's something we are going to try to improve on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think back in December -- and he may have to correct some of the details for me -- the court circuit was going to be extended from six weeks to nine weeks. I think part of the reasoning was due to the fact that Judge Halifax was resigning in Hay River and there was going to be none in Hay River. I wonder if the Minister still intends to have extended delays between court circuits in the Nahendeh riding.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Dent.