Thank you, Mr. Chair. A quick question here. I guess we’re up again 10 percent, perhaps a little over in the fees and payments, contract services, of course, which is essentially the sole item here. What additional services are we getting for this substantial increase?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are really no additional services. It’s a variety of items that cause the increase to that line item.

I know recently I think we signed a new 20-year agreement with the RCMP. Was that a year or two ago, and if so, how is it working out? Are we noticing any changes, any improvements or otherwise?

The Member is correct; it was April 1, 2012, where the new 20-year agreement was signed with the RCMP. We have, and will maintain, a good relationship with the RCMP. I know the Department of Public Works and Services is moving forward with a new way of maintaining RCMP assets here in the Northwest Territories, so we have a close relationship with the RCMP and it is getting closer. Of course, as Minister, I work very closely with the RCMP and the commanding officers here in the Northwest Territories, and I know they have done a lot of great work here in the communities in developing the policing plans for communities around the Northwest Territories, so yes, we are happy with the service we are being provided and look forward to the RCMP and the Government of the Northwest Territories continuing to work well together. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. Just in terms of the variety of items that account for the 10 percent increase, I assume there’s the usual forced-growth stuff here, I know a good number of people, and utilities, et cetera. Are some of those expenses related to the new conditions of the 20-year agreement?

Mr. Chairman, there is a number of items in there. The accommodation program is the biggest item that is just $2 million, so that is part of the new agreement with the RCMP. There are also many other things, RCMP relocation, inter-divisional cost related to

compensation and benefits for “G” Division, public service salary increases, as well, so there are a number of different items in there, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I know that a lot of effort was spent on negotiating that new agreement and I am sure that along with these additional expenses there are some improvements in services provided. I don’t know if the Minister has those at hand, but it would be good to know, and I know the public would like to know what additional benefits we are getting, or whether this is just the cost of doing business to maintain the status quo. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we have also seen more collaboration on capital expenditures, as well, as I mentioned earlier, migration of maintenance back to the Government of the Northwest Territories through Public Works and Services, so we have seen some of that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Continuing on to 9-21, committee, Justice, activity summary, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.906 million. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just one quick question I want to ask. I know we have some Members here that are concerned that we have some communities that don’t have any RCMP staff in those positions and I do understand that we do have a 1-800 emergency line. For some of the communities there might be some concerns with the health and safety of the residents, should something happen, or with domestic violence or something where we’re sending some of our inmates, who might have been in on serious crimes, back into their small communities, that might cause concern for family members or other victims. How are we able to support some of these residents in communities that don’t have RCMP in line, or don’t have any RCMP in the community, and what’s the timeline should RCMP need to get to some of our smaller communities when a phone call is probably sent here to Yellowknife headquarters, and do we have the resources that are available to send an RCMP officer into a community should they need to follow up on a case, or need to go in there and possibly arrest somebody that is committing the crime? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To answer the Member’s question, yes, if there is an emergency in any one of the communities across the Northwest Territories, the RCMP will be ready to act and get into that community as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Just following up on that, maybe a concerned citizen might call into the 1-800 line to address an issue they see in the community. It could be domestic violence. That might be a case we can refer with. What does the department do to follow up on a case where a concerned resident is putting in a case and calling the 1-800 line or calling the Yellowknife RCMP detachment? What is the plan of action to follow that up and follow up with the case?

I know that in a small community, if a concerned resident heard some domestic violence going on in a house or an apartment and they call the RCMP, they be there right away to adjust the situation, but if someone is in a community and the resources aren’t there, how is that dealt with? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, the RCMP would respond, and there are other departments, there’s ourselves and Health and Social Services that would have programs and services available to people as they need it. It depends on the community; it depends on the situation. I guess every situation would be different, but yes, if need be, the RCMP would look to involve us. We would be ready and able to provide some information to people that would require some services. Thank you.

Maybe I can ask the Minister if there’s a protocol for each of our communities that requires assistance, because in some cases if it’s something really serious, you know, you wouldn’t want to put any other residents in the community at risk to intervene, so we’re missing that part of the initial intervening of an issue that might be happening. In that case, that’s some of our more critical times to respond. So, I guess if you could identify which of our communities have the longest response time, or maybe provide response times to Members that have communities that they represent, so they understand and can pass that on to their constituents. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are protocols in place, and as far as service time to various communities across the Northwest Territories, I would be more than happy to get that level of detail for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Justice, activity summary, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.906 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions. Mr. Minister, do you know if communities like Colville Lake and other communities without RCMP members in there full time, have the communities talked with the department as to what type of preventive measures or, as Mr. Moses talked about, a situation sometimes from Fort Good Hope, it is about a 45-

minute flight, if it is good weather, or it is a three-hour drive by truck. Sometimes situations happen in real time that requires community action.

Is there any type of discussion on community enforcement or what could happen when the members are called and they need to come into a small community?

It is the goodness of some people’s hearts that they do the best they can in a community and sometimes it gets pretty scary. Some communities are pretty scary when there is drinking involved, when there is drugs involved, maybe some mental disturbance. Some of these small communities have to sort of fend on their own.

I know the previous Minister was talking about some things when we had meetings in Colville Lake. We don’t have an RCMP member, and there are some things the community can do and some of the solutions we’re thinking about is to help out the community.

Is that type of discussion still continuing on, or are we going to raise this again next year in this type of forum? Just to get some security or safety or assurance in to our communities without RCMP members. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In developing community policing plans, the RCMP do work with communities around the Northwest Territories and community leaders. As I mentioned to MLA Moses, there are protocols in place, when it comes to emergency events in a community, on how things will happen. I am going to be providing him with some further detail on that – response times – and we can share that with the rest of committee as well.

We also need to continue to dialogue with the RCMP and also with the community members. Crime Stoppers is certainly a good avenue for community members who want to report crime in an anonymous way, to phone the 1-800 numbers and report the activity that is taking place in the community that they want to report, and when the RCMP do come into the community and do patrols, that’s what they can focus their efforts on.

I would encourage Members again to utilize the services of Crime Stoppers, and certainly the RCMP will be watching that, as well, and being able to react to those calls as well. Thank you.

Madam Chair, I wasn’t in the House when Mr. Ramsay talked about some of my concerns and I apologize. I just want to know how many communities are without full-time RCMP members stationed in their community.

Madam Chair, currently 12 communities are without a detachment. Gameti

and Wrigley do not have detachments but they have dedicated members for their community, and I believe Tsiigehtchic is in that same situation, as well, where they have RCMP officers in McPherson that are dedicated to the community of Tsiigehtchic.

Of those other communities, all have fewer than 150 residents.

I appreciate that. I believe those numbers went up, Mr. Ramsay, when we first got in as MLAs, but I’m not too sure if the numbers stayed the same or went down for communities without RCMP members. I would like to see a plan of action from this government to start putting in full-time members into the communities. There are 12 without RCMP members and there are nine communities without nurses and we don’t seem to be putting much emphasis on the basics of putting some essential services in our communities. We are dealing with them through community patrols once a month. If the weather is good, we can get in there faster, but sometimes the weather is bad and sometimes we can’t get into a small community. So, we’re kind of leaving it up to the community to protect themselves.

I’m making a comment in there. I guess I’m also making a statement to challenge that we have to start looking at these communities and start focusing on putting in these essential services such as the RCMP.

I know there were a number of discussions with the last government and the government before that, and we don’t seem to be moving on this measuring stick here to get RCMP members into our small communities.

I will leave it at that. It’s not going to help too much on it. The Minister knows where I stand and the department also knows where I stand. It’s something that I would like to see from the leadership of this Minister, to put together some discussion plans to say, yes, this is what we plan to do; this is what we could do. I will be happy when that comes out.