Thank you, Madam Chair. There are some areas of concern obviously with the omnibus crime bill coming down, the path in front of us and the Minister tabling the effects of that bill of the NWT, we are going to see an increase in a lot of areas. Nothing was addressed in these main estimates, but hopefully in the next business planning session, budget session, we’ll get to look at those.

I think not only is it a concern for us, but on the news lately it’s a concern for the Government of Nunavut because they have an MOU where they have 20 spaces in our facilities. Whether or not the Minister will look into getting into another MOU with the Government of Nunavut for those spaces, knowing that we might be needing them in the years to come. With that said, it would possibly save us money rather than sending some of our clients down south for the same type of services they would get up here. That’s one concern.

Like Mr. Bromley, I wanted to get more information on the prevention side of things as well as something we discussed previously and that’s mental health court and his stance on that and where we can go with that, whether it’s something this government wants to proceed with and the commitment he has from his department as well as other departments that are associated with such a course of action.

Of course, legal aid services are being exhausted with the crime bill coming down. I feel it’s going to get even higher. In some cases the communities having legal aid services fly into the communities, it does put a strain not only on the system, but also for the person in question who might be incarcerated to get them moved through the system a lot faster. That just takes me to people who go into remand until they do get their court hearings and ensuring that it’s cost effective to get them in the court system, through their cases when it’s supposed to go through, it would be cost-savings to this government. I’ve had constituents come up to me and tell me about some of the deficiencies associated with this department and how much

money is being spent when if things were done right away, it would have saved thousands of dollars.

All other comments were pretty well addressed by my other colleagues here today. Obviously, with this omnibus crime bill coming down, it’s going to really affect our justice system and I think we have to start preparing for that sooner or later.

On the positive side, I was really pleased to see that later this week there’s going to be a tabling of a 10-year strategic plan. So I know it’s looking into the future to decrease our costs, not only within two years, four years, but it’s a 10-year plan. I am really glad to see that. It really gives direction to the government, to the department, over the next 10 years.

The family violence worker, it is one position and if it’s being utilized throughout the Northwest Territories, that is a position that might get exhausted, considering all the cases that person would be encountering, as well as the children’s lawyer’s office is something that is very positive and taking it to the right direction.

The socio-economic pressures that are contributing to the crime rates are something possibly the department should work with. If the appropriate department, whoever is negotiating our socio-economic agreements with the industries, the mining companies, the oil and gas companies, should try to get a better contribution from these industries whose impact is both positive and negative in the communities. I think we’ve got to get a better deal out of that so our government isn’t footing the bill of the work that’s being done in some of our regions.

Other than that, I’ll have more questions in detail. Thank you, Madam Chair.