I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to that. One of the things that the Minister heard today here is there is obviously concern in the smaller communities that don’t have a regular detachment but there’s potentially regular patrols to those communities without detachments. With this budget, and again I didn’t hear it in that breakdown that we heard earlier, is there a greater focus with this new contract now to look at implementing more patrol days in those communities that do not have detachments?

It does give us more of a planning cooperation relationship with the RCMP. One of the things that we’ve been doing is the RCMP has been going in to actually set up individualized policing plans for every community, and we’ve been working with the individual communities. For instance, when we went to Tsiigehtchic and Colville, we actually sat down with the leadership, the commanding officer and I, and then the commanding officer continued after I left. We had conversations about exactly how we can provide, or how they can provide coverage that meets their needs. Even after having some of those discussions, I heard the chief in Tsiigehtchic say we don’t necessarily want a full-time RCMP officer but we want to make sure that we have coverage that we’re comfortable with, and they started working out the details and this is what we need to do. We need to go into each of the communities and work out individual solutions, community-driven solutions.

We need to work with the communities, and the RCMP and the commanding officer are committed to doing so, and we will continue to work with them to create the opportunities to start developing these relationships and find community-based solutions with the RCMP and the Government of the Northwest Territories.

What I heard from that is we’ll be looking at community-based solutions and opportunities. I think my question was: Will we be seeing more patrol days in those communities that do not have detachments? I would like less of a soliloquy but more response to the number. Thank you.

I could do that but it would be different for every community. In some communities that may be true. Other communities it may not be true. Depends what we negotiate in cooperation with the communities and the RCMP. It’s hard to say.

Again, not that I want to be tongue-in-cheek here, but the question is obviously very, very important to a lot of the communities that do not have regular patrol days or very few patrol days. What we’re hearing from communities is the fact that they’re looking for more police presence, more patrol days, and I’m hoping that this budget for this fiscal year will be addressing that. It sounds like you’ve got a new contract in place, which is congratulations to the department for doing that, but I think from this side of the House we need to see that translating into more presence, more effective presence and more visualization of our RCMP in those communities that are needing it most.

I’ll leave it at that. I think that the Minister, when time permits, could really relay that type of information to all Members of the House, in terms of are we going to be seeing an increase in patrol days over the next fiscal year as a result of this new agreement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. I’ll take that as a comment. Question asked and answered, if the Minister wishes to respond. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just sort of building upon the last response, as part of their planning with these community policing strategies they do set targets in cooperation with the communities, targets that are measurable and that they will try to attain. They do that with the communities. The Member is right. I mean, we want to see more RCMP in as much as possible, but it may be not necessarily more days. It might be more appropriate days or better timing or working with the communities on which times they feel that they truly need coverage as opposed to more. It may be more. That was the point I was trying to make, is it’s really hard to say per community that it’s going to result in exactly more. It may be more efficient and better use of that time and a better choice of time. We need to have the flexibility. The RCMP need to have the flexibility. The communities need to have the flexibility.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Next on my list, Mr. Bromley.

Madam Chair, my first question has to do with the RCMP family violence coordinator, a couple of questions there. Where do you envision this being based? Do you envision this as an RCMP officer or a social programs expert that would be working with the RCMP to enhance their understanding? Thank you.

Madam Chair, it is an RCMP officer located in headquarters providing services to the entire Northwest Territories reporting to the commanding officer or very close to it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Again, would we expect that there would be specialized training in the area of family violence from the social program side as opposed to the important side that provides that liaison, or what is our concept here? Thank you.

That is exactly what the position is about. It is not about a street on-the-ground enforcement officer. It is about the types of things Mr. Bromley is talking about.

That’s great. It’s good to hear. Will the department play a role in making knowledge about this available throughout our communities? Will there be a helpline for NGOs? How does that work? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Ms. Watters.

That I think helps me understand this position. My second question I have is with respect to the law enforcement programs. I believe $128,000 has been identified for work related to the Mackenzie Gas Project. Obviously, that project has been shelved in the immediate future. I am wondering how we are reallocating those dollars in this fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.

Madam Chair, the position is currently vacant, from what I understand. From my understanding, the RCMP is hoping to utilize that position to help them with other industrial initiative-type things that are happening, like the play in the Sahtu. There is going to be a significant amount of challenges in the Sahtu with all the additional work coming in there. The position is going to be utilized to help address some of the

social impacts on the RCMP of major developments.

I just have a question with the process. Is that normally a decision that would be brought to committee for some input, or is that sort of a contract obligation and here is the money, you can do what you want with it to the RCMP? Thank you.

Yes, it is a contract obligation. It is an RCMP position. We fund 70 percent of all RCMP positions.

Madam Chair, I guess I am reaching a bit here. Had it been the Minister’s responsibility, I would be bringing accountability into the equation. Now I am asking the Minister to bring accountability with a third party. How many years have we funded this position? How many years has it been empty? How many other positions are there that are empty that they are choosing to use the money as they would see fit rather than asking us how we would like to see it directed? I am presuming that it is our money, our taxpayers’ money that we are providing them here. This is just a general attempt to understand this and bring some accountability. Thank you.

It is a strategic initiative-type position. It is new this year. It is brand new. It hadn’t been utilized in previous years.

Madam Chair, I guess that’s good to hear. Maybe we could indicate that this is a Sahtu commitment or something like that rather than an MGP commitment, that would clarify. That’s just an administrative suggestion there. Thank you. That’s all the questions I have on this page.

It’s a resource development position. I’m happy to have that conversation with the RCMP to see where is the appropriate place for that position to be located. I couldn’t tell you right now. I’ll have to have that conversation.