Again, before I can respond to that, I would need to get all the information as to what’s been done, what resources have been in place, the supports that are in place right now to make sure we don’t create an overlap or divert away from what other groups have there, what mandates might be established out there. So once we get that information we will be able to respond to the Member and get additional information as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the residential school survivors have an interagency committee within this territorial government. This has been supportive in ways that are beneficial. I want to take it a step further. I do know there is not a resident residential school advisor to the Department of Executive. Again, I would ask the Premier, once he does research this request, would he come forward to the House and have suggestions to appointing an advisor to the Department of Executive such as the Women’s Advisory Council had?

Again, without having the background information what other agencies and what some of our departments are involved in, supports in this area, it’s hard for me to commit to establishing a position. We would have to go

through our business plan process. We would have to see what this position would be doing and advocating for and what would be required. Whereas, right now, we do have some supports through our departments, Education, Culture and Employment being one of those. Again, I would have to get that information and provide that to the Member and decide where we would go with something like this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to get clarity on a question to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources in regards to the process in terms of the sales of the outfitters. The Minister has indicated there are two rights of refusal. I just want to get it very clear for my people. You have two land claims that have two specific clauses for two rights of refusal. The Minister has, by definition -- I don’t know which definition -- it seems the Department of Justice has given some clear definitions that there is only one you could use. However, you have two constitutionally protected modern agreements. Will the Minister go back and see what is the definition...We in the Sahtu have not been consulted in terms of the sale of this outfitter. Has the Minister gone to the Sahtu leadership and said what are your thoughts on this sale?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. “What if” questions are always difficult to answer. As I have indicated to the Member in this House and in writing September 10th , we have

initiated and embarked upon a process with the aboriginal governments, the management boards, our own departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories and stakeholders, to try to resolve that issue; two competing rights of first refusal. In this case, the Gwich’in were given the right of first refusal first. It can only be offered once and then it’s no longer first refusal. So that’s the question we have to try to answer between two land claims and overlapping licence. Thank you.

Certainly as I stand here with my friend from the Mackenzie Delta in terms of this issue, I want to again say when this issue came up...Has the Minister considered going to an arbitration panel in terms of this important issue? It’s very important in my region. Has the Minister thought to look at a process through an arbitration panel?

It probably would be one of the questions we’d ask. Who helped negotiate these agreements that left us...

...in this circumstance? Do we go to an arbitration panel? That might be where we end up once this process goes through the steps and we consult and we talk to the aboriginal governments, the management boards, the stakeholders and see how we resolve this, because it is an area where there is an area of dispute and we need to come up with a way to resolve this. Thank you.

I guess, then, in terms of the interpretation of these negotiations with the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories and the interpretation of these agreements, sometimes that also needs to be discussed. Regarding this agreement that was interpreted by a definition of the government, when the Minister found out, did he inform the Sahtu leadership that we have an issue here rather than just say because the Gwich’in has a majority of the ownership, they have the first right to answer to the first right of refusal?

As the Member asked again, I will answer again. We recognize that there is an issue here between the Sahtu and the Gwich’in and a licence that covers overlaps in two regions. We have embarked upon a process, as I have indicated to the Member in this House and in writing, that will involve the Sahtu government, Gwich’in government, stakeholder, management boards, the Government of the Northwest Territories and gather around and sort out the issue that I am sure will have some complexities to it and will take some time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member for Mackenzie Delta has stated, the owners of this sale are mostly the foreign people, Americans, in terms of this new outfitting business. Now I want to ask the Minister in terms of the licensing of the outfitter areas, we have a percentage in the Sahtu. Again, does that automatically make a new licence or amend the licence so this new outfitter can operate in our region without getting the proper consent from the Sahtu people under our land claim that is constitutionally protected?

Mr. Speaker, we started this process to resolve those issues and they are increasingly complex questions the Member is posing in this House. We are not going to be able to resolve that level of complex question in this House in question period. I am not an expert,

unlike my colleague from the Sahtu, on negotiating land claims. It’s a question that is going to have to be resolved, and we set up a process to answer those questions and all the others that are going to come forth as we look at this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question I would like to raise today is how we can get more boots on the ground, from an enforcement point of view, than in the cars driving by. Mr. Speaker, I have talked to the Minister of Justice about this issue where there is a call out there by the public wanting to see more activity from our enforcement side on the ground, speaking to people, meeting people and developing that personality and presence in the community. We know that in the city of Yellowknife we have municipal enforcement, also known as bylaw, and many other communities and regions have bylaw officers. One of the problems we have is resourcing this. So in bringing this problem to the Minister of Justice, I talked to him about finding ways to help deter some crime, in partnership with the RCMP, before it turns into that negative aspect of crime actually happening, and then the processing of the crime, and then it goes on and on and the cost to the justice system.

Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister of Justice is: would he be interested in opening up a dialogue that we could come up with potentially -- and I stress potentially, Mr. Speaker -- some seed money to try to get more enforcement officers on the ground accessing the resources of municipal enforcement through some type of cooperating agreement with the RCMP and help develop a model that we can push out to the regions that this would be a program that we could develop together with both the City of Yellowknife and the regions to see if we can get more activity from our enforcement side to help deter crime? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is one area that certainly was addressed at last week’s FPT meeting that I attended in Fredericton. Out of that meeting, the three territorial Ministers did discuss a strategy with the federal government to increase policing in the remote communities such as the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and also Nunavut. Out of that

there is a plan in place which I’ll be sharing with the Members.

There is also a plan in place by the federal government, Mr. Speaker, a community officer program. There’s a pilot project for our jurisdiction and we are certainly looking forward to that. I know that’s just one small piece, but this is the area that we have improved on over the years. We are open to ideas and suggestions but, as you know, Mr. Speaker, nationally there is a shortage of RCMP officers. There has been an announcement of 2,500 officers through a recruitment fund and out of that we got our portion, but it was on a per capita basis so we got small seed money out of that. At the same time, we got some money out of federal, so we continue to work with that. Mahsi.

Thank you to the Minister of Justice for that important answer, Mr. Speaker. What I’d like to do is to see if we can seize that opportunity to help use the resources that exist in the city of Yellowknife such as they already have an enforcement division, but as the Minister knows very well, they’re not a policing division. So in other words, they don’t have the same powers and authority that the RCMP would have. Yet, that said, they are public officers in their own right and, of course, they have those types of responsibilities, again, different but similar in their own form. So there is a certain element of where they could help patrol, but work with the RCMP to help deter activity. That’s what I’m looking for from the Minister, if he sees an opportunity here in this somewhat compilation of ideas here. Can we work out an idea of potentially helping develop some seed money, create a program that could work regionally in the larger centres, whether it be Fort Smith, Behchoko, Inuvik, and accessing these types of resources. Does the Minister see an opportunity here? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister is correct; RCMP are providing not just excellent services, exemplary services, without any doubt in my mind. I happen to be one of their biggest fans.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Minister that any program developed, it would have to be territory-wide and I would not assume in any fashion that it shouldn’t be. But crime is a problem and I don’t want to shock this House by making that statement, but a lot of crime, in my view, could be deterred by a visual presence. That’s really what I’m after, Mr. Speaker. I’m after do you think we could find a way to come up with a measurable program, one that we can work through, at the very least, our larger regions, our larger communities and seize on the opportunity.

So, Mr. Speaker, to the Justice Minister, that is if I was able to forward some of the officials from the City of Yellowknife to the Minister’s office, do you think he’d be open for some type of discussion to find if we could build a partnership, one that we can model across the Territories and certainly find useful information and measurable information? Would he be open for that type of meeting and discussion? Thank you.