Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there is a lot of work being done on this situation. I think this government should also take a lead role, not only by supplying funding dollars but look at ways we can regulate or mitigate the consumption that some of our housing units are using in the synthetic gas. It would decrease the costs and that can go into deferred maintenance or even housing repairs.

Does the Minister have any kind of campaign in place that might be able to tell the residents in the housing units on their energy consumption so that we can prolong that well until we find a longer solution? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I know, through the LHO, they put out a newsletter every so often. I have been advised that they are going to put a campaign in there as to the consumption of gas. However, that is a hard one to regulate, to tell people that they need to reduce their consumption. I think they all realize, especially those in the private homes. They’re probably all turning their thermostats down a bit to conserve.

As I’ve seen and as the Member is aware, we were dealing with a situation where a senior who owned their own home went from $700 a month to $1,400 a month and they’ve taken every step they could to try and mitigate some of the usage.

So it’s a difficult situation the community of Inuvik is in right now. All the agencies are working together to try to find a solution, and hopefully we can find a solution soon.

But as far as Housing goes, we’ll do what we can to make sure that our tenants are informed, advised and ready. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I talked in my Member’s statement about my community, and my community looking for ways to tackle the issues of safety that have come to the fore in the last several months.

Some years ago there was a dedicated group of residents, in conjunction with the RCMP, who began a citizen's watch type program. It was a program called Citizens On Patrol, or COPs. It was a really effective program for a number of years. But as with many programs, when the people who start the program either tire of it or move away, then the program falters, and that’s what happened here; it’s no longer around. It has been mentioned in the last number of weeks, in conversations about safety, that maybe we should start this program

again and that it should be revived and that it could be a benefit to us in Yellowknife.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice whether or not he’s aware of this program, has he heard of the Citizens On Patrol program, what his view of that program is, it’s potential for Yellowknife, and if he thinks it will address some of our issues. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I’m aware of the Citizens On Patrol program. It was a very good program. Basically their role was to observe and report. Unfortunately, as the Member has indicated, I think it ceased to exist over time. There were probably fewer volunteers than there needed to be and I think it resulted in the unfortunate burnout of some of the individuals who were involved.

This is an issue and an opportunity that keeps presenting itself. We are very interested as the Department of Justice. We are working with the RCMP to see if there’s any way that we revitalize this group. We do need organizations to come forward who would like to maybe champion this as well. It is something that we hope happens and we are actively encouraging other organizations to consider it as well.

Thanks to the Minister for his response. I’m really pleased to hear that Justice is behind this.

My next question I was going to ask about is a commitment and I think the Minister has already basically said the department is willing.

I guess I would like to know whether or not the Minister will take the initiative to contact the city, because I think this is something which the city certainly has to be very much involved in.

So will the Minister take the initiative, or the RCMP, will he encourage them to take the initiative to contact the city to see what we can do to get this thing rolling? Thank you.

That’s already been done. The RCMP participate on the city’s Police Advisory Committee. We’ve had discussions with the RCMP and they also see this as being a valuable opportunity to have some eyes and ears on the streets of Yellowknife to share information with them. I believe they have already taken this to the police, an advisory committee, and have already had discussions on that.

But it’s going to take more. It’s going to take individuals to come forward as well. As a government, as the Department of Justice, we’re very supportive of this opportunity and we will provide assistance where possible.

Thanks again to the Minister. He leads me right into my next question. I recognize that volunteers are something which are absolutely necessary to this program. It’s not going to happen if we don’t get the volunteers from the community who are willing to be the eyes and ears and to actually go out and do the patrols.

I’d like to know from the Minister what kind of supports the city or a Citizens On Patrol group, whether it’s attached to the city or not, what kind of support can this group expect from the Department of Justice. I’m talking about PYs – person years – money, actual dollars, and/or equipment. Thank you.

It’s difficult to quantify at this time. We know that the RCMP want to be supportive of this initiative and they will work with any community group that comes up. Through that, assets or requirements for PYs may be identified. We’re happy to have that discussion with any groups that come forward. We’re happy to work in that way.

Just for historic reference, in 2004-2005 as well as 2005-2006 when this organization did exist and was supported in Yellowknife, we did provide some support to help them cover their van leases and some other things. These are things that we would be interested in looking at again, but we don’t know what those costs are right now, so it would be very difficult for me to commit to a dollar figure.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that you can’t commit dollars, but it’s gratifying to hear that we are on the same page and that you’re willing to support this group if we can get it going.

One of the things that I mentioned in my statement is that there will be results from the community meeting that was held. I’d like to know from the Minister if he can give us any kind of an indication of when the working group might be reporting.

Mr. Speaker, we got a lot of good information at that meeting and we’re obviously looking for more on a regular basis. To that end, we have posted the minutes from the meeting on our website, and we’re also seeking additional input. We’re seeking ideas from the community on how to deal with some of these public safety issues.

There are a number of things that have already started. Issues were raised about communication between RCMP and the municipal enforcement division here in Yellowknife, both from a personal communication but also technical communications issues have been brought forward to our attention on those issues. So we’re working on those. We’re trying to improve communications, improve

relationships. We are looking at COPs and we’re looking at other opportunities.

I will commit to having something to committee and Members later in the fall, towards the end of the calendar year, but we need a little bit of an opportunity to put some of the ideas that are coming forward through a bit of a filter and figure out how we can make them work. So I will commit to getting something for the Member before Christmas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to continue my questions from yesterday with the Minister of Health and Social Services on addictions and, more importantly, the closing of the Nats’ejee K’eh Residential Treatment Centre.

It’s clear that this Assembly and the people at large have a Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan for 2012-2015, which we were told were the guiding principles, or I guess the compass points, if you will. We waited meticulously for many months for the Minister’s Forum on Addictions. That’s on one side of the equation.

All the while, what’s happened on the other side of the equation is the fact that we now lost our only residential treatment facility. We’ve received, in this House, quasi responses with respect to whether or not we now have detox beds. Now we’ve got interim contracts that will expire March 31, 2014, with four southern contractors that are supposed to represent and solve our problems in the interim, and we have no idea what those costs are and the standby costs for those.

All the while we’ll have a Minister and department that have compass headings. They’ve got a compass unit on their dash, but I’m not sure if that thing is plugged in, because it’s definitely giving us some mixed reviews here, as we’ve heard in the last day or so.

My first question is, is that it’s well documented that the Minister of Health met with the board of directors of Nats’ejee K’eh on March 26th of this

year. The Minister requested that this board of Nats’ejee K’eh produce a detailed business plan to consider the range of programs and services, its staffing and its staffing needs, and incorporating more of an Aboriginal culture component. Did the Minister receive this business plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We received some documentation from the board, and that’s something that we could move forward with. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I can assure you that there was a business plan that was produced. We know because committee on this side of the House has received this plan. It’s a very detailed plan, a very good plan, as far as I’m concerned.

The question that we’re hearing is that we’ve got parts of the plan, yet we were given a full plan, so it doesn’t quite make sense.

My question, with respect to this plan, if there was this plan given as a result, as I indicated that we did receive on this side of the House, why was the funding still cut? What was wrong with this plan?

Regardless of how good the Member thinks the plan was or what we thought of the plan, the bottom line was that one counsellor, one person to do counselling for all the people that were supposed to go there, that only one person was in the position there to help the people who were going there for treatment. The board themselves, through the executive director, had indicated that she thought there was a safety issue here. To continue on to have intake of people into Nats’ejee K’eh with only one counsellor was a problem, and this created a safety issue not only for the counsellor but for the people coming in for counselling. It was the executive director that approached the board that said, I think it’s time to shut down Nats’ejee K’eh. At that point, we took action and we cut the funding effective September 30th this year. Thank you.

Now we’re getting into some of the details, which is good. We’ve been waiting for this for a while.

My interpretation of the plan is my interpretation. I’m assuming anyone on this side of the House who read the plan, as well, would have their own views. We know the department has their own views and I think the public might have their own views. So would the Minister like to enlighten us and maybe table this plan for everyone to see, because, quite frankly, Nats’ejee K’eh is closed, so what harm would that do?

Mr. Speaker, I guess I can talk to some of the individuals. I do believe that the board is now non-functioning. The properties that they presented to us, I don’t know who has the ownership of it. I don’t know whether or not I would be allowed to table a document such as that. If I can, I would be glad to do it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, it sounds like we’re going to have to do another

ATIPP request, and thank God I’ve been collecting bottles all summer because this seems to be the pattern of activity here for Regular Members.

I guess we’ve heard from the Minister that he’s going to go back and talk to a defunct board that no longer exists, to ask permission to table something that is in the ownership of the department.

Again, will the Minister commit to tabling this for everybody to see what was the action plan of the Nats’ejee K’eh and how unsafe, really, was it?