I want to use this opportunity to ask for an update from the Minister on, I guess, are we one year yet into our new 20-year contract with the RCMP? I know we’ve had a lot of discussions about that, leading up to it. It got signed and I, of course, didn’t hear about it again, but what are we finding after a year of working under this new agreement?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we are one year into this. One thing we’ve learned is it’s expensive, and it will continue to be expensive. We pay 70 percent of all costs associated with the RCMP, and as a result of the contract, we’re also paying for the infrastructure as well. The costs have gone up.

The benefits of the contract are, obviously, the different types of relationships that we have with the RCMP. We’re still in our first year there, so there are still some growing pains trying to figure out what exactly that means, but we are in a different position as far as providing some administrative direction and setting some priorities. I know the department, senior management and I, as well, meet and talk with the RCMP on a regular basis, and we talk about northern priorities. We’ve been really pushing, and I’d say thank goodness that the commanding officer, I think, has been pushing as well, for community policing plans, and having a real relationship with the communities. The RCMP and the commanding officer, they’ve been going into most of the communities on a regular basis. Community policing plan in all 33 communities, which I think is fantastic. We’ve never had that before to that degree. The RCMP are providing regular reports to community leadership on reported crimes, crime rates, activities that are happening in their communities, so the relationships, I think, are becoming quite positive out there.

There is always going to be money issues and trying to figure out where the money’s flowing, and trying to get the priorities where we need them to be, but we’re working on it, and I think as we move forward it will become stronger and we’ll see more benefits in that area.

We do know, based on conversations that we’ve had with our partners, that both Nunavut and Yukon are very interested in our policing plans, our

community policing plans and that type of approach. Some of the things that are happening here are starting to get attention in other areas.

Thanks to the Minister for that update. You mentioned the 70 percent. That was true before. The infrastructure, I think there were some changes there. Would that largely explain the more expensive comment?

I believe I understood from the Minister’s remarks that we have more opportunities for, say, on how things go and where priorities are, although we still have difficulties on where the money gets put, or issues. So after one year, is this a good deal?

We work with them to set our yearly priorities and we meet with them on a regular basis to discuss things as they come forward at us. It’s more expensive but it is a 20-year agreement, and it also includes a 20-year capital allocation as well, which is spread out over the period of time rather than having one billed at one time and having a giant cheque one year and prices, it’s spread over a 20-year plan. It is more expensive. We know that. We have a relationship where we could provide more direction as far as priorities. We don’t tell them how to police. They police based on their standards, protocols, practices and all those types of things, but we have a pretty good relationship right now. If you ask me if it’s a good deal, it’s a lot of money and, obviously, we’d like it cheaper. I think everybody would, but that was the national deal that we were a part of.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Next on the list is Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome to the Minister and the Justice team here tonight. I’ve got a number of questions on this page relating to constables. I’ll start my questions off with the awareness and the support of recruiting for community constables.

Where are we at with the department? Are there special initiatives that are ongoing and how successful have we been in that area?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a number of different programs currently provided by the RCMP. There’s the

Aboriginal Community Constable Program. In the Northwest Territories we have one person who has successfully completed that program. There’s an intake, I believe it just ended actually, for two more positions here in the Northwest Territories. We had a large number of candidates, which I think is fantastic. I’ve made statements in the House about that program, and I’ve encouraged Members to work with their communities to identify people. I know that we’ve got lots of candidates and we’ve got people, I believe, that have been identified for those two positions. Training starts in June for those two positions.

The RCMP also run a youth cadet-type program, and I actually forget the title of the program right now, but it’s for young people who are interested in pursuing RCMP as a career. There are limited seats in that, and in the Northwest Territories the RCMP do a pretty good job of advertising that program. I made a statement here in the House and I encouraged Members to submit names. We had one person go through that program here in the Northwest Territories last year, a young individual from Inuvik. We’ve heard that it was quite successful. The person really appreciated their experience and the opportunities, and we’re hoping that we’ll see that person in the RCMP someday. Who knows, but that’s certainly a hope.

The RCMP continues to recruit. They continue to look for members. We look for any opportunity we can to enhance Northerners in policing.

Madam Chair, I appreciate the Minister going into detail on that here. The Minister, myself, and members of Justice were at the policing symposium, I believe in 2012. I appreciate the Minister having members accompany him with opportunities like that. One of the things that was discovered during the presentations was the State of Alaska has very similar situations that we have, in terms of communities that do not have state troopers, whereas we also have a lot of communities that do not have RCMP presence. They use a body called a village public safety officer, or VPSO.

I know, in discussing this with the Minister then and the deputy minister at the symposium, the possibilities of this being somewhat of an opportunity for the Northwest Territories to look at a hybrid version of what is truly a successful program in Alaska. Can the Minister comment on it? Has he made any strides as to investigate this as a potential? If he can offer that to the committee. Thank you.

Madam Chair, the department has followed up on the program. There are some challenges. Just as a note, it is very similar to the Aboriginal Community Constable Program. There are some differences here in the Northwest Territories. We don’t have a policing act,

so having stand-alone police-type professionals in a community that weren’t under the employment or under the designation of the RCMP would be complicated because of the lack of a policing act. The program had some positive aspects, but there would also be some challenges given our radically different models of policing in Canada compared to the United States.

We are right now working with Aurora College and some Aboriginal governments and some other groups on looking at a program that we might be able to deliver through Aurora College that would give people some, not policing skills, but some justice training that they might be able to parlay into different areas, be it courts, be it corrections, or if they’re interested in going in the RCMP it would give them some skills and some knowledge that would help them in their application process. We’re looking at that as an option to help train people.

For now, the one that we know works is the Aboriginal Community Policing Program. We continue to encourage the RCMP federally to consider creating more seats there for us. We have two right now, but we will continue to push because our success on that program is quite impressive.

Madam Chair, my next question has to do with trends. Can the Minister elaborate, with his contacts with RCMP, are we seeing any trends in the Northwest Territories that residents should be alarmed? I’m thinking of things like potentially weapons offences, maybe bootlegging, these types of things. Are we seeing any large trends with RCMP involvement in our communities?

Family violence continues to be an issue in the Northwest Territories. It’s recognized by the RCMP, it’s recognized by departments, it’s recognized by the health care system, and I think it’s recognized, clearly, by Members of this House. But it continues to be a challenge and is something that needs additional work. Alcohol abuse, I’ve talked to RCMP detachment commanders that talk to the commanding officer. They all say, not all, but a significant amount of crime that is happening in the small communities is alcohol related.

Madam Chair, I have no further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Next on my list is Mr. Blake.

Madam Chair, I just have a couple of short questions. I would just like to congratulate the department on putting in an additional RCMP member in Tulita. When will the community of Tsiigehtchic actually see at least one member in the community? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Currently there is, I believe it was back in 2009ish, an extra position was actually created in Fort McPherson to cover Tsiigehtchic. That position is intended to go into Tsiigehtchic on a regular basis. I understand that we had a community policing plan in place with that community and it hasn’t worked out exactly as the community and the RCMP have planned. I have talked to the commanding officer. The commanding officer is going to Tsiigehtchic on April 9th to meet with the

community leadership to discuss the community policing plan that was in place and try to find some ways to get the coverage that the community members are expecting based on the fact that we have that position in Fort McPherson to provide services to Tsiigehtchic.

As far as a stand-alone detachment and a stand-alone officer in that community, we can’t have one-member detachments in communities. There are protocols in place that actually limit that from happening. But we would like to work on some creative solutions to ensure that we have somebody in there as often as we can, not just to arrest people but to provide community education, youth education, work with community members on different types of programming. We would like to work with them to make that happen.

Madam Chair, our goal for the 17th Assembly is to actually have safer communities. We are just not seeing that happen in Tsiigehtchic. The people there don’t feel safe. A good example is if the community experiences a shutdown at the school, which I’m glad that we haven’t yet, but I’m just thinking of their response time that those students would face having to wait anywhere up to two hours for a response from Fort McPherson. Will the Minister look at having a community constable in the community of Tsiigehtchic? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, the Aboriginal community constable like the one we have in Hay River, they are still RCMP members with a particular focus. We would have the same difficulty putting an Aboriginal community constable in that community without backup. There are requirements to have legal backup in case of a complicated situation or when dangerous situations arise.

We are open to creative solutions for the community. I think the meeting that is going to happen on April 9th can be productive. We and the

RCMP are very interested in working with the community to find some real solutions. We as a government are focused on safer communities, which is why using programs that we have in place like the Community Justice Committee, Youth Justice Committees, some of the things like Not Us!

Campaign, we can make, with community direction, positive results in communities.

The reports out of Tsiigehtchic tend to be quite low. If they are going up, we should have that discussion, but over time, the amount of calls compared to some other places is pretty low. I recognize what the Member is saying. Work is needed. We are happy to work together to find some solutions.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Yakeleya, did you have a question on this page?

Madam Chair, 6-20?