Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs who well knows that we do not have a 911 service anywhere in the Northwest Territories. The Minister also knows that the chief coroner of the NWT, as early as 2001, has made recommendations that the GNWT should consider implementing a 911 service in our territory. The need is an issue of public safety and access to emergency services. Mr. Speaker, it is well known that a 911 service saves lives and the response time to accidents and tragic events is much shorter where a 911 service exists.

In May of 2007, the NWT Association of Communities passed a resolution at their annual general meeting that the GNWT formulate an implementation plan to provide 911 dispatch service to all households in the NWT. The Minister is aware that the City of Yellowknife has been working to get a 911 service off the ground for many years now, but it is hampered by a lack of GNWT support. Just this week, Mr. Speaker, the deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs made the following statements, and I quote, "The government is preparing to undertake some research. There has been a lot of interest from the coroner’s office, obviously from the City of Yellowknife and most recently through a resolution from the NWT Association of Communities in saying discussions on how we might get some kind of emergency services advanced." My question to the Minister is this: What research is the department about to undertake and when will it get started?