Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been a number of community policing consultations recently. Out of those discussions the issue of special constables has been raised. I want to assure the Member and the House that our government is interested in having a police force that's representative of the general public and representative of the population in communities. So we're very interested in better understanding how we can move closer toward that.

Our approach the past number of years has been to look at the First Nations policing policy and try to get that expanded. I think Members know that much of the funding available on reserves in the South is not extended to the North, and we think that that needs to be corrected. I would say that the RCMP have very recently started to look -- I think probably because of the proud history of the special constables in the North and within the force -- at this option again. We do know that the regular force is maybe not the best option for everybody. The reality is that if you are a regular officer, the possibility of you having to move outside the North is there, and there are some who might want to be involved in the policing and not prepared to leave the North.

So we're looking at some options that might be able to address this. They're very preliminary, but the RCMP have started to discuss this, and I'll certainly be prepared to come to committee and sit down and discuss this with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.