Thank you, Madam Chair. Could the Minister indicate as to when the group might be able to hear a response about where the department and the Minister is at? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, in the next two weeks I will have an answer for the organization. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Thank you. Community justice and corrections, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $2.086 million.

Agreed, thank you. Page 7-38 and 39, community justice corrections, active positions. Any questions?

Agreed. Thank you. Page 7-41, activity summary, services to the public, operations expenditure summary, $3.370 million.

Agreed, thank you. Page 7-44 and 45, information item, services to the public, active positions. Any questions?

Agreed, thank you.

Page 7-46, 7-47, information item, work performed on behalf of others, and that actually goes on to 7-49 for a total of $1.244 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Madam Chair, on 7-48, RCMP First Nations policing recruitment and also community consultation, there's no funding in 2006-2007. What's the intent, number one, for the RCMP First Nations policing recruitment? We did have in 2004-2005 $228,000, and $175,000 the following year...(inaudible)...$175,000, and then there's none in 2006 and 2007. Can I ask the Minister in terms of is this part of the federal government cutbacks in terms of policing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, this is a federal government program that we've been successful in accessing in the past. We think we're going to be successful again. This was caught I think at this point in the transition between governments, but we do know that officials are supportive and we expect that we will have a positive outcome here. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. In this one here, Madam Chair, I want to for the First Nations policing recruitment, can the Minister comfortably say how much he's looking for funding in terms of the funding and the intention of First Nations policing recruitment? Certainly this is a worthwhile project. So I want to ask him on those two things. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, we think we'll be successful in seeing the same amount of funding extended through 2007 and then we sit down to start negotiating a new agreement. There wasn't time for a new agreement, but we think we can be successful in getting that extended or carried over and then we will use

those funds, the RCMP will use those funds to try to work with local people and get them into depot and get them back into our communities. Again, this is all about the philosophy that we need a representative police force and that is a priority for us, as Members know. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister provide to me the history of this program and how successful and does it match the dollars that we are asking? Certainly I know we certainly can see if there some ways we can put RCMPs into the communities where there aren't any RCMP detachments. I know what he's getting at. So I want to see how successful you are with this program. Are we spending it into where it's supposed to be?

The other one, Madam Chair, is the First Nations policing and community consultation. I'm going to make the presumption, is this the same as with the policing recruitment that we're caught in between the governments, because it had $179,000 in 2004 and 2005 and we went down to $55,000 in the last couple of years and then this year there's nothing. So I wanted to ask about that, also. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, I understand that it isn't exactly the same situation and that we have, in fact, completed the consultation exercise last year. So now we have documented that and we have a report that we're submitting to the federal government and we're working with our other northern partners, Nunavut and Yukon I understand, and we will be making a submission to the federal government. That builds into the philosophy that we spoke to and aboriginal policing initiatives generally. The first question was about RCMP access and I guess an ask to paint a bit of context and talk historically about how successful this has been. I can just very briefly tell the Members that the program, the RCMP access program began in '04. We had six candidates at that time. We did have a successful candidate complete it and graduated from RCMP training depot in December of '05. There is a second intake now underway, sorry, a second access program now underway expected to run until March 31st of '07. Our funding levels currently allow for up to four candidates in the program at one time. Again, I indicated earlier, the selection process is underway beginning in, again, in February of '06. We go through screening eligibility. A list is established for candidates who meet the screening, then they are entered into the program as there are seats that become available. There are a number of other things here going on, but I can say that we've received, and this looks like a good number, but we received 19 applications for the 2005-06 program. So it looks like there is some increased interest here. I'm not sure if all those folks will be eligible, but regionally by breakdown that's five applications from Inuvik, four from Yellowknife, three from Behchoko, two from Hay River, one each from Aklavik, McPherson, Providence, Lutselk'e and Smith. So a nice range of interest right across a number of regions in the territory. I think that bodes well. We think this program is improving. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Yakeleya.