Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few general comments on legal aid and RCMP services, but first I'd like to just mention the issue with the courthouse. I know that project is off the books for the moment, or it's delayed, and I know it's one that may not have the most overwhelming support from some Members, but I think, in the end, that has to be a business case and the fact is the government is and will continue to spend money and will be required to spend money to hold those trials and hearings that have to go on. For some of the most extensive cases they need certain capacity, security and services that they need to hold those hearings and trials, and government will have to pay leasing or owning the building and I would like to encourage the Minister and the government to keep on working on that because it's not a public project that's going to go away; it's something that has to be addressed and in the end the business case has to make the decision on that. I think the business case will prove that that needs to be done sooner rather than later.
On the legal aid situation, Madam Chair, I am well aware of lack of family lawyers in Yellowknife and the fact that there are so many cases. I mean a lot of people who need legal aid can't get it and those who get the legal aid services, the files move very slowly, and there are some cases where, you know, the cases get really protracted for many reasons. People have disputes even in the best circumstances, but when you're going through break-up of a marriage and children are involved and families involved, people get entrenched and they sometimes are not able to make the best decisions that they'll see the end of the relationship or whatever. I know that federally, given that divorce legislation is under federal jurisdiction and much of the family law area is under federal law jurisdiction, I know in many jurisdictions attempts have been made to put in dispute resolution mechanisms just to put any extra steps that could work toward resolving these issues. However, at the end, if the two parties are set on disagreeing on every point, that does take time. I'm wondering if the Minister and the department has looked into a case management system where you could do a review of cases and see what cases are so long outstanding and whether we could do a concentrated effort to clean up some of those files, even if we have to get something like locum lawyers. You know, we have locum doctors to replace our doctors if they're on holidays or we can't get them. Is there some kind of set mechanism where...Is there a way, or do they have a way, or does the legal aid office operate under some kind of rule or system that would tell them that they need to review, have some idea of how long these files are and whether we could institute any new ways, whether using a short-term infusion of imported lawyers from other jurisdictions who are licensed, or who are members of the bar to practice here temporarily or something, just to clean up some of the files.
The second thing is I can appreciate that the work they have to do at the legal aid office is not an easy task. There are lots of people who are employed under the government who have to deal with hard clients and clients who are under a lot of stress and they are very distraught and so I can understand the stress that our staff is under, but I think it would be helpful to remind everybody working for the government, serving the people, that what they do say and how they do their job matters and there are better ways to serve the people than not. So I would just like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to be mindful of the clients they serve. They're under a lot of stress and they could be helped much further if they were given service with courtesy and respect.
The last thing I want to talk about, Madam Chair, is to do with the RCMP servicing programs in the North. We are all aware of the fact that RCMP resources nationally are under a great deal of stress. RCMP, in this heated labour market, I think they're having even...I mean, they're trying to recruit as many as possible but they're not able to recruit as many as they probably need or they could afford, and they probably can't afford as many as they need. In the North they are having lots of discussions here to make sure that every community has RCMP service. I support that and I do congratulate the department, the Minister and the Member from Nunakput, for the work that he has done in his effort to get that in Sachs Harbour. There are some other communities that are still working on that. I keep thinking about this challenge we have though. I'd like to see all the communities having... You know, Wrigley doesn't have RCMP service and, I think if you don't have RCMP service, other social agencies are unable to get into that. You know, nurses don't want to work in communities where there is no RCMP protection. We all need a minimum level of protection and any other social agencies, so RCMP sort of has to be the lead for other agencies to come in. So we want to see a situation where that doesn't happen anymore.
Having said that, I think it's important also to realize that not having all the RCMP support in small communities are affecting the services in Yellowknife, too. Yellowknife has...it's a community of half of the population, but certainly we do not have half of the RCMP contingent; not anywhere near that. I think probably most, I would say 60, 70, 80 percent, of hard crimes are committed in Yellowknife. The downtown core of Yellowknife is going through so much stress and we hear every day from retailers, pedestrians, we have youth being attacked by other youth, we have people being mugged in broad daylight, we have people doing drug deals at every corner. I mean we have serious crimes happening and my information is that we may have as little as 20 to 30 percent of our RCMP resources in Yellowknife. It's a problem if we are spending 70, 80 percent of resources, RCMP resources, outside of Yellowknife and yet we cannot staff all the communities. In the capital city where, not because Yellowknife is big and Yellowknife should get everything, it's just that because it's big there are a lot of really serious crimes being committed. I know in working with the RCMP and talking to the RCMP, they are bending themselves backwards and forwards to address all the needs in all the communities. At some point, I think that enough is enough in terms of how much Yellowknife can sustain and maintain a reasonable level of community safety if it keeps being under-resourced the way it is now.
Organizations like the Yellowknife Coalition for Community Wellness, COPS program, Community Patrol Services, RCMP Advisory Committee, there is a drug-free zone, there are a lot of things that the community is working on on its own to ameliorate the gaps that are being created by the fact that Yellowknife continues to be
under-resourced in its RCMP staffing. I think this needs a real focused attention. The issue is we have all this RCMP. Within the resources we have, we are not able to resource the big communities where the hard crimes are like Inuvik, too, and yet we still are not able to staff the small communities. So I don't know where the point is where we could adequately meet the needs of small communities and the large communities, and I think that's a challenge that the Minister and the government has to continue to work on and one that I'm prepared to work on if we could get some options on that. My time is up, Madam Chair, so I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you.