Thank you, Madam Chair. In the Sahtu, from 2011 to 2012 there was a noticeable increase in activity in the Sahtu. I don’t have the statistics in saying how many of them were alcohol related, but it’s interesting that the increase comes at a time of two things happening in the Sahtu. One, the increased activity, which can be significant, and the other being the changes in the rules around the Norman Wells liquor store. Those two things both happened roughly at the same time, so it’s hard to truly quantify what the increased rate in crime is. We feel that much of it is probably related to the activity and the money that’s available in the communities, which is one of the reasons that we have decided to put an additional officer in Tulita.
We need to work with communities. We’ve got community policing plans, which we think are fantastic, but people have to take some personal responsibility and work with the RCMP and help us identify when people are bringing alcohol or other substances into the communities. People have to be willing to talk to the RCMP so that they know when it’s coming in so that they can intercept. We have been having some pretty good luck this year. I’ve shared with the Member a significant amount of photos and reports on the amount of booze that’s been confiscated and kept off the streets in the
Sahtu region and I think some of that is as a result of community people taking some responsibility and involving themselves in the solution, and we need to see more of that.