Mr. Speaker, we do take the safety of the residents in the Northwest
Territories very seriously. I’ll make that point quite clear. The seven communities that are in question here, there are a couple of them that have said that they’re not planning on 911 at this particular time. The one I spoke to in particular said they’re looking to enhance their own emergency services before they go to the next step of implementing 911.
The communities have it within their means to provide this service. Obviously it’s an important service for the city, because they initiated the report -- and I commend them for that -- and they believe it’s a service that’s needed in the city. So they would have to take that first step. They have the money to put the infrastructure in place.
We have many concerns that I have heard from some of the other communities and when we talk about a territorial-wide initiative, because it’s the seven largest communities in the Territories doesn’t make it a territorial-wide initiative. We still have 26 other communities out there.
I just want to assure the communities and the public, we do take the safety of our public very seriously. Money is provided to all communities to act on the priorities that they set in their communities and if 911 was a priority in Yellowknife, then they do have some funding from the government to make that come about. Thank you.