We're prepared to assist in the same way that we assisted in Inuvik.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement today, I have questions for the Minister of Justice. It has been 40 to 50 years since the community of Tsiigehtchic, at the time Arctic Red River, has last seen an RCMP.

Short of establishing a detachment in Tsiigehtchic, what programs exist that we can put in place to help address policing and community safety in Tsiigehtchic?

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a dedicated officer in Fort McPherson that is intended to provide services to Tsiigehtchic. In the last sitting the Member did raise some concerns he had about some relationship between the community of Tsiigehtchic and the RCMP detachment in Fort McPherson, and I did have some staff and the commanding officer of “G” Division go out and visit Tsiigehtchic and try to work out some of the complications or difficulties that existed. It's my understanding that they have actually worked out a few things, which I think is a step in the right direction.

The Member is right; if a detachment ever does go to Tsiigehtchic, it's going to be a while, so we need to find some ways to help the people in that community today and tomorrow and until something like that were to happen. I have talked about the Community Safety Strategy that we're piloting right now. I think this is a fantastic tool that the government will be able to sit down with the community and map out some of the issues that face them and come up with partners in other organizations who may be able to help them.

I would encourage the Member and I would encourage the community to get in touch with the department, and I can certainly help facilitate that so that we can look at the Community Safety Strategy and how to apply it in Tsiigehtchic for the benefit of the people in that community.

There is an Aboriginal community constable that has been successful in Hay River. These constables focus on community policing, crime prevention, activities frequently engaging youth, and support efforts of community justice committees. Can we see further progress in the Aboriginal Community Constable Policing Program in the Northwest Territories?

The answer is yes. The program is in a pilot phase. It had its original delivery in November 2010, and we were fortunate enough to get the one member here in the Northwest Territories in Hay River. The RCMP is doing a second intake, which is intended to happen this September. We have, I think, a number of applications that have come in for the second troop. We have two seats, and we have applications from Fort McPherson, Fort Simpson, Behchoko, Ulukhaktok, Sachs Harbour, Hay River, Inuvik, Gameti and Yellowknife. We know at least two of these individuals will be going forward for this program, and should they be successful for the program, they will be in detachments in the Northwest Territories providing those services.

The constable in Hay River does amazing work. He goes into the schools. He helps the full members. He's about promotion, about education, as well as, to some degree, enforcement. If one of these positions will be in one of the smaller communities in the Northwest Territories in a detachment, they would be free to travel and provide services throughout the entire region. That could be a benefit to a community like Tsiigehtchic if we were fortunate enough to get somebody from the Mackenzie Delta in that program. It's a great opportunity.

A number of years ago, I believe it was 10 to 15 years ago, we actually had somebody in the community who had a similar type of program that he'd taken and successfully passed. Will the department look at introducing special constables in the communities without police?

There has been some discussion around this and it's something we're certainly interested in having some conversation on, but there are some challenges there that we have to be aware of; for instance, insurance coverage and making sure that the individual is safe. We need to make sure that an individual is safe, and if he or she happens to be the only individual in a community providing policing, or is seen as the only person, they could be in harm's way, so we need to make sure that we put in mechanisms to ensure that that is not the case, and we don't have those questions answered at this point. That is something that we do need to look at. We also have some problems, as well, if the individual is not linked directly to the RCMP. We would have a problem with individual communities setting up police officers because we lack a police act here in the Northwest Territories. But there are opportunities that do exist.

We do have the Axillary Program, so individuals in communities can approach the RCMP about joining the auxiliary, and they would assist the RCMP. There's no reason an individual from Tsiigehtchic couldn't joint the axillary. Unfortunately, they would have to be working out of the Fort McPherson detachment, but it is an opportunity for information to flow both ways and to have individuals from Tsiigehtchic working collaboratively with the RCMP in Fort McPherson.

Once again, there could be some opportunities here, and I would like to work with the Member and discuss those further.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister: Will the department develop a police act?

We have been approached by some communities who have an interest. We've been approached by some organizations that have an interest. It's not currently in our legislative agenda, but it is something that we are...(inaudible)...and looking at. I can't say for sure whether or not we will actually see it come forward in the life of this Assembly, but I can commit that it is something that the department is looking at and will continue to look at. We do have in front of us, now that we have passed the motion on devolution, a pretty heavy legislative agenda. We've got a number of things outside of devolution we're working on that have been priorities of committee and Cabinet, so we do have a number in front of us, but I will have the department do a bit of an analysis on the Police Act that I can provide to the Member and committee so that they understand what some of the challenges around that particular act are.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Mr. Speaker, it is a standard process. It is a manual process. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for the answer. I would like to know then, if it is a manual process and I'm a worker in Inuvik and I'm processing these applications, do I have a template? Do I have standards, guidelines that I follow so that Mr. Moses sitting next to me is actually doing the same work in the same way that I am doing? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, they do have a guideline, a procedure that they follow so that each application received with the appropriate and correct information is processed in exactly the same way and then is sent out for a card. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister again. We made a change to the process of health card renewals. It started, I understand, in December of 2012 or January of 2013. Prior to making that change, I would like to know from the Minister what other jurisdictions were reviewed to set up this new health card renewal process. How did we evaluate what we were doing and what we are now currently doing? What other jurisdictions were canvassed to see what kind of a system would be best for us? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don't have that information with me, but I do know that we have looked at other jurisdictions. We recognize that there are various ways that other jurisdictions have gone about renewing their health care or providing health care cards such as decision to go with a picture on the health care card and so on. We have looked at other jurisdictions. Specifically which jurisdictions we looked at and tried to follow, I don't know which it was. I think we are continuing on with a system that we have developed ourselves. Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister. I guess I would like to suggest that if we are following a system that we have set up that perhaps is not working very well, then maybe we ought to look at other jurisdictions in a little more detail and perhaps change our system.

In our system, in our process and in these guidelines that staff has, does it identify a standard turnaround time and what that time is from the time the application comes in to when the renewed or new card goes back out to the individual? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, an individual may apply for their health care card in time within four months of their birthdate. The time frame is that if you apply within four months of your birthdate, then the process would run to where you will have your health care card prior to your birthdate. That is the time frame that we are using. Essentially we would, I guess, try to get everything done within those four months, not even longer or not much shorter because we need the time to do the process. At the same time, we have to protect the integrity of the card. Thank you.

From what I hear from the Minister, it sounds as though there is no standard. When an application comes in, there is no turnaround time of, say, five days, from the time that it is received on the desk to when I as a worker have to send it back out. I would suggest to the Minister that that is not a good situation.

He has heard many complaints from Members, and I am sure he's heard from residents as well. I would like to know whether or not the Minister has done an evaluation of the workload in the Inuvik office to determine whether or not there is adequate staff there. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, earlier on I indicated that perhaps we had a manpower issue in Inuvik because we were hearing some complaints about people not receiving their health care cards on time. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. The time frame is what the time frame is. The idea is to try to make sure that individuals are getting coverage. That is the objective. Therefore, when we have the window of four months before your birthdate, that is so that individuals are resident of the territory for sure. We figured that four months was a reasonable time that an individual that is living in the Northwest Territories would apply for a health care card and would come within that time frame.

We are processing approximately 100 applications per day. I don't really set up a system that tries to deal with it in certain time frames. We have the overall time frame. We recognize that if they are coming in at 100 applications per day, we have to move on each application every day. That is essential on how we are going about the process. The time frame is that time frame with the exception of a few people who didn't get their health care cards on time. Our success rate is very high. Thank you.