I also have some information, as I indicated, that the increase of liquor sales from the Minister of Finance, or the liquor revenue commission report shows an increase of liquor sales in the Sahtu. Combine that with the activity that’s happening in the Sahtu, the amount of people coming in and the lifting of the liquor store rations are significant contributing factors to the crime associated with alcohol.
Any newspaper in the Northwest Territories, you look at it and you always say, the amount of crimes with liquor is high, 85 percent or higher, or drugs. So that tells me something. So I’m really happy the Minister is responding with extra RCMP. I can work on the other stuff later on, but I wanted to tell the Minister I’m happy. In talking to the Members, it’s good to have additional support. Even in Tulita it would be nice to have a steno working in the office. We’re talking to the members and they’re busy. They’ve got to answer the phone and they’ve got to be nice after 13- or 14-hour shifts and then they’ve got to write up their reports. So we need some administrative support for them because it’s going to get incredibly busy and the Minister knows. He’s travelled with me in the Sahtu and we certainly appreciate that, what he heard and how he communicated with the people, and this is only the beginning.
So I want to leave it at that, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Minister on different types of options that we can have for Colville Lake. It’s unacceptable in this day and age to have 11 or 12 communities without RCMP members. So I look forward to the federal government to come up with some funding because our communities do not have RCMP members, and I will continue with the Minister to work on these types of initiatives. Safety first, safety first, safety first. I think I can get that through to the government and we could make a significant amount of progress if we were to establish an RCMP in our communities that do not have an RCMP. So I’ll save the rest for my Member’s statement and I’ll continue consistently to put up my little sign and say more RCMP in the communities without RCMP. We should not be any different. We need equalization.
That’s what I’m going to say and I want to thank the Minister for taking his time out and travelling with me in the Sahtu. We appreciate that. We appreciate the government coming along with Minister Ramsay. Other Ministers have come, and I’m hoping the other ones are planning to come. People want to see you in the region. They want to see our Premier, they want to see other people in our region. That’s what it’s all about in this government.
So I’ll save the rest for my Member’s statement, Madam Chair. Thank you very much.