Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Continuing on with general comments, I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to briefly touch on our RCMP services in my riding. I think, particularly in Fort Simpson, I am pleased how they interact in the community, especially with the new organization for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. They really came out and pitched in, helped out with the kickoff of that event, and I am pleased to see that. I am also pleased to see that they continue to do drinking and driving. There were 11 charges in January, which is good to see. It sends a message to the community that we take this very seriously in the Northwest Territories. When it comes down to the small communities like Fort Liard that has a small detachment, every time I visit there, community members want that kind of involvement and that kind of, I guess it is intervention, or catching the drunk drivers and, most particularly, the bootleggers that cross the border from BC. I don’t know if that is part of their strategy to do check stops across the border. Fort Liard residents often say there are not enough check stops at the border. Perhaps they are doing it but not too visibly, so not everybody is seeing it. I just urge the Justice department to continue with that.

Another incident is search and rescues. I am really pleased how the RCMP steps up and gets involved and hosts whole community meetings, especially with when we lost the late Billy Cholo in Fort Simpson. The RCMP was front and foremost interacting with the community, with the leadership, trying to resolve that situation the best that they could.

There is something that is still on my plate, of course, is to return nursing to the community of Wrigley. Part of that process was to have RCMP services there. We have dedicated RCMP officers in Fort Simpson, but it is the long-term goal, of course, to get a detachment back into Wrigley. I can still see the business case where, with the onset of development in the Sahtu in the long term, Wrigley will require extra policing and extra medical services, such as the case as it was in the late ‘70s when they had nursing and police services in Wrigley. I have been pressing this House that that is the case coming up once again, and hopefully, I know that when it came to infrastructure, at one point it was largely federal infrastructure that created holding cells, et cetera, so I think that with recent changes that it belongs now to the Government of the Northwest Territories. I don’t know if the Minister wants to comment on that, the long-term capital planning for establishing catchments in a small community like Wrigley. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I will turn this over now to the Minister for an opportunity to reply to general comments. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Members for sharing their general comments with me. There are a few areas of concern that overlapped most Members.

I guess what I would like to start out with, and I know was raised by a number of Members, was policing in smaller communities and the need to look at services. We do provide services, especially a community like Gameti or Wrigley, Tsiigehtchic are serviced by the RCMP.

Just to put it into perspective, today there are 12 communities in the Northwest Territories that do not have a detachment. Three of those communities are within a 30-minute drive of a major centre with a detachment. The other nine – I could list them off, there are nine other communities – the cost of establishing a detachment in one of these communities is anywhere between $11 million and $12 million, an upfront capital cost. So if you look at nine communities, that is close to $100 million in capital expenditure. Also, on an ongoing basis we would be looking at somewhere around $40 million to operate nine new detachments in the Northwest Territories, so the cost is prohibitive today.

Moving forward, I think we have to ensure that we are providing services to those communities. We have had some success. I know the Member for Mackenzie Delta talked about RCMP members that are dedicated to the community of Tsiigehtchic, travelling from Fort McPherson into Tsiigehtchic and overnighting in the community, and we believe that is a very positive step in the right direction. We hope to have RCMP members in the community

eight nights out of the month. We are working toward that goal.

I know the Member for Nahendeh mentioned the situation in Wrigley and maybe that’s a model. I’ll go back to the department and to the RCMP and discuss whether or not we can have RCMP members look at accommodations in Wrigley so that they can be more present in the community on a monthly basis. That’s something that we’ll certainly take a look at.

Mr. Yakeleya also talked about on-the-land programs. We did have an RFP that went out late last year. We didn’t have any successful proponents that came forward. Right now we’re regrouping at the department. We’re going to see if we can take another shot at this and perhaps look at another RFP, or if there are interested groups, I know the Member and I had talked at great length about some proponents in the Sahtu that were interested in operating an on-the-land program in the Sahtu but we didn’t receive a proposal from them. We don’t want to close the door on that. I think there is some opportunity there and we certainly would look forward to working with groups, whether they’re in the Sahtu or other regions around the Northwest Territories, to look at on-the-land programming in the Northwest Territories.

A couple of Members also talked about interpreters and the availability of interpreters. We have the resources available to us so that we can provide that service to people. If Members want more details on how those resources can be available to community members, that’s something that we have and we’d be happy to help Members with that.

The one other issue I wanted to touch on and Mr. Nadli had brought it up, we support the government when it comes to legal advice and legal support to various departments. We don’t get involved in ongoing court cases. That’s something where there’s a clear distinction between the judiciary and the executive branches of government, and that’s always been the way it is and we don’t involve ourselves in court cases.

The other item is policing plans. We’ve had a great deal of success in working with communities on policing plans. I think it’s a perfect opportunity for the RCMP to meet with the community leadership to go over the needs of the community on an ongoing basis and it’s something that has been successful. We’ll try to continue that practice and ensure that those are in place for communities around the Northwest Territories.

I thank MLA Menicoche for his accolades to the RCMP in Fort Simpson and in Nahendeh. I know many times the RCMP are really involved in the communities they’re present in, and we certainly look forward to their involvement.

As we go forward, I know they’re front and centre on any search and rescue here in the Northwest Territories and we appreciate the job that the RCMP are doing for us here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Is committee prepared to go into detail?

Thank you, committee. Committee, we are in your main estimates binder at 9-7. This is the summary which we will defer up until conclusion of consideration of the individual activities. I’ll get you to turn to 9-8, Justice, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?

Seeing none, 9-9, Justice, information item, revenue summary. Any questions?

Thank you, committee. Page 9-10, Ms. Bisaro.

Sorry, Mr. Chair, I couldn’t get back to page 9 quick enough. Could we revert to page 9?

Does committee agree to go back to 9-9?

Ms. Bisaro, we’ve concluded that one, so if you want to capture that in another… We have concluded 9-9. Thank you. Page 9-10, Justice, information item, active position summary. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under regional allocation we have 475 employees allocated here. Would the department be able to break out, out of its individual regions, how many of the positions are funded and unfunded? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those positions are all funded. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Over and above this, how many casual positions does the department carry? Thank you.

I’ll go to Ms. Schofield for that response, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Ms. Schofield.

Thank you, Ms. Schofield. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you. Is there any commitment to finding out how many there are of those relief positions, and furthermore, what do they cost? Thank you.