The Minister has stated some pretty serious dollars for the community, and I understand that, it’s a given. I know what it will cost to put in an RCMP detachment, plus you have nine communities, and there are nine communities without health nurses in their communities, and I got it, Madam Chair. I’m asking again for some type of plan from the federal government.

What’s the cost of a life in our small communities without RCMP? If they have to go in, and it depends on if the weather is good, if there is an airplane, what kind of price tag do you put on a life if in one of those communities that don’t have RCMP and something terrible happens and you don’t have an RCMP member respond in time?

What do we go back to when we go back to these numbers? It is a price that I think this government can do. If we can find a business plan for a business case for a $700 million project on hydro, we certainly can do a business plan of putting RCMP and nurses in our communities. If we spend over $200 million on a bridge, we can certainly find money for RCMP and nurses. People’s lives are worth it.

I cannot sit here and accept this. I will just ask the Minister if he will work with the federal government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I appreciate the Member’s concern and his questions. I guess the main thing is providing a service to communities across the Northwest Territories. If you look at a community like Tsiigehtchic, the RCMP have been working closely with the community leadership in Tsiigehtchic. We have plans now to overnight officers in the community, I believe it’s eight days out of the month.

I mentioned in response to some of Mr. Menicoche’s opening comments that that might be a model we want to look at in Wrigley, for example, or perhaps in Gameti. Those are discussions I made a commitment to earlier, to going back to the department and to the RCMP to see even if we don’t have a dedicated detachment in a community, can we get officers into a community and overnight in the community as a step forward. That’s something I think the RCMP in Tsiigehtchic have

been amenable to. If the discussions start with communities like Wrigley and Gameti, maybe we can get some progress there as well.

So, we need to continue to work with communities. I think by working with communities, we can provide the best service that we possibly can to the residents around the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Page 9-21.

Justice, activity summary, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.906 million.

Thank you. Page 9-23, Justice, activity summary, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $6.224 million. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Under legal aid services, I know the department has done a lot of really good work in bringing down the wait times for regional centres and here in Yellowknife when people are wanting to access legal aid. However, in the small communities, what we’re hearing is it’s a little longer than 60 days. As a result, I would like to read a motion.

Thank you. Go ahead, please, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. I will give a few moments for the motion to be distributed.

To the motion. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee that’s been bringing these motions forward, once again, is in support of the work that government is doing. Some other dialogue and statistics that we get when we do have questions for the department, a lot of these motions we do bring forward are in response to some of the questions and answers that we hear within our dialogue during the business planning session. We’re working with our organizations throughout the Northwest Territories, so committee just wants to acknowledge that we’re listening, we’re hearing

what people are saying and I just want to acknowledge that through a motion.

I think you’re going to hear some questions from committee with regard to this particular page within the budget. I just wanted to acknowledge that.

Once again, I want to acknowledge the standing committee and also thank Members for listening to the motions that are being brought forward from committee. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I appreciate Member Moses for bringing this forward. Committee had a long and heartening look at this particular motion for a number of different reasons. First and foremost, I think we have to thank the Department of Justice for listening to the Members last year, recognizing that the average wait time to seek legal aid was rather high in a lot of our communities. Some of those wait times were somewhere in the 90 to 120 days in some cases, which in Members’ views was a bit of a long period of time, especially to get access to legal advice. It’s probably imminent that they need to get things looked at.

The premise behind this motion is really to set a target rather than a dollar figure. We want the department to come up with what is a reasonable investment, so that target is really the focus of the motion. Bringing that average wait time to about 45 days for seeking legal aid, we think this is a very doable target with a very little amount of investment, yet this will definitely help greatly the Northwest Territories residents seeking that much needed advice. So the $200,000 is imbedded within the motion, but quite frankly, we suggest and encourage the department to use the 45 days as more the governance in doing so. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.

I request a recorded vote, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The Member is requesting a recorded vote. Any further comments to the motion?

Question is being called. All those in favour? Please stand.

All those opposed?

All those abstaining? Seven in favour of the motion, eight opposed. The motion is defeated.

---Defeated

Page 9-23, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to start by asking how many legal aid lawyers we currently have on staff, what the wait times currently are and how they vary across the Northwest Territories.