Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member has put his finger on it in terms of how the RCMP allocate their resources. It is on the basis of need. It is on the basis of crime rate. We know that when we're going to create a detachment that we have to have two-member detachments. We can't have members working by themselves anymore. That is a requirement. That is just a reality for us. So when we talk about how the RCMP best locate their resources, that is something they have to consider. It's 13 communities. It hasn't gone up, but of course we do, part of the problem could be the confusion around what we consider a separate community for this purpose. The Hay River Reserve is a separate community when I refer to 13. Detah is a separate community when I refer to 13. So that may be the confusion between 11 and 13. As I look at these communities, that's what I'm thinking.

We talk about the best use of resources. I hope the Members can appreciate that if you take some of our smallest communities, Kakisa with 36 people, Jean Marie River with 70 people, Trout Lake with 80. If we set up a two-member detachment the reality is the RCMP, some of the downtime could be spent supporting other communities. So they've located them in other communities and then serviced these communities. I would like to see detachments in every single community across the North. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be successful in getting those kind of resources either from the federal government, nor do I think our government could afford that.

My reference to the $500 million was simply to point out that there are pressures from development coming our way. Regional committees will have to make decisions about how they deal with those pressures and how they allocate those monies. We are and will provide, continue to provide a basic level of service. If there's a desire to enhance that, those committees I think will, I believe, have broad latitude as to how they do that. It could be that they choose to leave policing out of the mix. We will continue to do our utmost and we're not relying on that fund as some sort of a crutch. I'll continue to make the case to the federal government that they need to make sure we're provided the adequate resources. But if I'm going to be forthright about this, and honest, I would say that we will not be successful in seeing detachments in all of our communities and I don't think that would probably be the best use of those resources. It would be nice to have, but there are some communities that are going to rely on service, whether that's monthly or weekly or every six weeks. But hopefully we have the ability to have those RCMP officers stay on the ground in communities to provide service. I've been dealing with, for instance, in Tsiigehtchic the Minister for Housing has come up with what he believes is a solution that would allow the RCMP to have a residence so that RCMP officers could stay overnight as they come on tours from McPherson.

So we're doing a number of things to try to make sure we have more RCMP on the ground in our communities during weekends, during evenings, during off hours. We're looking at solutions like the policing approach we're taking with the ice road in Gameti, for the ice road season to try to restrict alcohol coming into the community. The bottom line is, these communities are opened up and as we have access, and we have ice roads, and we have more development, there is more access to alcohol and there is more pressure from development.

So I'm not suggesting that communities should spend their money in a certain way. Our government will have a seat at that table; will be involved in that discussion. Communities will have to come up with those decisions. I would suggest that they're going to be difficult decisions and we'll find out what the priorities are. It isn't an attempt to offload. I'll do my utmost to make sure that we're at the table clamouring for resources because I think we need them. We have unique challenges here.

But I appreciate the concerns of the Member. I know that he's very passionate in this area and is advocating for his communities and the other communities. What we want to do is get that number from 13 to come down. I think we have a chance here to move in the right direction and I'm going to see that we do that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.