Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I have indicated before, we have 13 communities in the North without detachments and they rely on coverage and service from larger centres. We do have and the RCMP have schedules worked out in terms of how often, outside of emergencies, of course, but how often they typically visit each community, whether or not they have the facilities in place to stay overnight, what the duration of the stay typically is, and it varies by community depending on, as I've indicated, the assets and support we have on the ground. We are, and it is our priority of this government, to see more adequate policing, more adequate coverage in those 13 communities that don't have dedicated detachments. So as I've spoken of previously, we have struck a working group between our department and the RCMP to talk about this. One key part of that, and a piece that I'm interesting in driving, is looking at some new detachments in a couple of communities in the most dire need. We've talked about Sachs Harbour and I think there are other communities that come to mind. Wrigley is another one that we've talked about. So there are some specific communities that I think really need detachments. That doesn't mean that we don't need a game plan for enhanced presence in all of our communities, specifically I would say those that are going to be heavily impacted by resource development. I'm hopeful that as we sit down to talk about how this $500 million socio-economic impact fund will be spent, that as the regional groups talk priorities, they will talk about policing and they will recognize that public safety is paramount. As we have these increased challenges, we've got to have increased resources and we've got to have the community come together to deal with this need. The RCMP are certainly prepared to play their part. It does come down to resourcing and I'm hoping that those committees will recognize the priority that we should be placing on public safety. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Brendan Bell on Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 21st, 2006. See this statement in context.
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 20th, 2006
Page 1196
See context to find out what was said next.