Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member talked about the community justice coordinators and the reduction in those positions having an impact on communities. One of the reasons we have gone ahead with reducing coordinators was that we have got the committees up and running in the communities. If they need support, we are keeping enough resources to have one person who can go into a community and help them get things back on track. What we are doing is taking $237,000 from the savings and reinvesting that and making it available to the communities, so that those communities who were finding it difficult to do the good work that they were doing with the money that was available, they now will have an opportunity to apply for an increase in funding. We think that's important because a lot of these committees were taking on a lot of work, so it's essential that we support them to do the job properly.

The Member made a comment about JPs being volunteers. Just so that we don't get it wrong here, we actually pay JPs $55 an hour, so they are paid for their work. The lengthening of the court circuit or the change in the time of the court circuit hasn't really impacted on JPs, because it's really the judges who are on the court circuit. By the way, it wasn't the government that did that. The change in timing for the court circuit is entirely decided by the chief judge, and it's based on the demand. I have been assured by the previous chief judge that if there was demand, the timing and the court circuits could be changed and would be changed if there was demand for that. By demand, I mean the numbers of cases built up.

The Member talked about the length of time for clearance of cases. I am advised that the Northwest Territories has the shortest time in Canada for clearing cases from time of charge to final disposition. So we are doing pretty well in comparison with everyone else. It's a much more decentralized approach to justice here than you will find anywhere else. None of the provinces send courts around to all the communities. The accused will wind up going to a larger regional centre for courts, rather than it being delivered on a regional basis.

The Member brought up the issue of interpreters at the RCMP. I believe, in that issue the Member talked about, the RCMP responded fairly to that situation. I believe that they were concerned about the situation and that perhaps the individual hadn't understood what was going on. I believe that they were fairly quick to respond in that situation.

The Member brought up the issue of affirmative action. The department wouldn't have a problem putting in our business plan the government goal of a representative workforce. I think the department feels it's bound by the government policy, as all departments really are. But if Members feel that it's something that should be stated in the business plan, we certainly don't have any problem adding that to our business plan.

Then the Member asked about the remand savings. What is the difference? You are familiar with the facility and where the control centre is now for remand. It's staffed 24/7. There wouldn't be staff 24/7 and anybody who was in that section would get the same sort of supervision that happens in other areas, which is where corrections officers make their rounds every 10 or 15 minutes, rather than somebody being there 24/7. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.