Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now there are only certain communities that have ambulance service. Inuvik is one; the community of Fort Rae, or Behchoko as it is known now; the communities of Fort Simpson and Hay River are the communities that have ambulance service. There are varying degrees on how those communities are funded. Some are funded solely by contract through the Department of Health; others are paid on a fee for service. The responsibility for ambulance services basically falls under the Department of Health. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can I switch Ministers then in my....Okay. I didn't hear the answer. I'll address my supplementary question to the Minister of Health and Social Services. No, I can't; okay.

I would then like to ask Minister McLeod, Mr. Speaker, who is responsible for providing the equipment that our volunteer fire department uses to go and respond to motor vehicle accidents on the highway? They service a large area. One of the ambulances which is used regularly is 19 years old. Who is responsible? What government department is responsible for replacing that vehicle? I would also like to know, are there any other vehicles? Do we send ENR officers; do we send anybody else out on the highway in 19-year-old vehicles in this government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of programs that MACA supports and works with through emergency preparedness to fund some fire rescue vehicles; not necessarily ambulances. Ambulances still fall under, for the most part, municipal governments. This government, through MACA, is responsible for the Fire Prevention Act, which is more an area of inspections, investigations, training. Under our capital programming we do provide fire protection equipment for non-tax-based municipalities. We do not provide it for tax-based municipalities. The responsibility for ambulances still falls under that jurisdiction of the municipal government tax-based communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can fully understand that. Hay River is a tax-based municipality; however, they are servicing highway infrastructure which this government knows well goes all the way to Fort Smith, the border, Fort Providence, down the corridor. Who is responsible for ensuring that we have adequate vehicles and infrastructure to serve that? That is not within the municipal boundaries. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, the area for responding to accidents on the highway is something that falls across a number of jurisdictions. In some cases, the RCMP respond and in some cases some of our highway officials will respond if they are in the area. We have instances where we have our nursing vehicles responding to highway accidents. We have a number of different communities that have ambulances that are responding. We are working with the Department of Health to look at the whole situation to make sure that all lines of communication are clear, that all lines of responsibility are clear. That is something that we are planning to have out by November, the Minister of Health tells me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just for clarity, because I am sure this is very important to the traveling public, people that are traveling on our highways would like to know that if they have the misfortune of an accident that somebody is going to come and respond to that, and for the benefit of the volunteers in Hay River, to whom should we appeal for a new ambulance for Hay River? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, we have had and are currently having discussions with the community of Hay River on a number of issues about the fire chief's position and the ambulance's equipment requirements. We have worked with the Town of Hay River for a fire rescue vehicle. We have contributed through this government for a highway rescue vehicle and we will continue to do so. I would be pleased to be the contact person, or my department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement today I quoted George Washington, who said, "The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government." Mr. Speaker, I spoke about the reintroduction of the Special Constable Program in the Northwest Territories. I do not believe that the present RCMP recruitment methods for aboriginal people effectively increased the presence of aboriginal policing at the local and community levels in the North. Can the Minister of Justice inform this Assembly whether the Department of Justice has considered reintroducing the Special Constable Program in the North? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Bell.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister is correct that these one-time special constables provide a very valuable service to the RCMP as a whole. Because of the lack of RCMP in the smaller communities, I'd like to ask the Minister on the Special Constable Program, can he provide some written documents to the House in terms of the type of substantial discussions held with the RCMP in the Northwest Territories in reintroducing this program to the North? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll ask the department to have a look and see what exactly we have that we could provide to committee. Again, I want to assure the Member that we are starting preliminary discussions around this. The community consultations on policing have reflected and provided us with the feedback that communities are interested in reviewing this. Again, very preliminary; we're just now sitting down to discuss it, but I would certainly be prepared to share with the Member and committee any of the briefing materials that I have in this regard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.