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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for advising me of that. I’m not suggesting that the government needs to be totally responsible, but legislation, if we put it in place, certainly would provide the need for people to buy and install AEDs. This is a difficult situation. Obviously, GNWT does not have any kind of a policy, we don’t have any department, from the sounds of things, that is responsible for this particular issue.

I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not he would be willing to commit to discussing this issue with Cabinet, whether or not he could then, after discussion, advise which Minister has been assigned this responsibility and who will take on the responsibility of AEDs and providing for them in legislation, if possible, or policy, if possible, and advise Members and the public. Thank you.

Thank you. There is an extensive legislative list in front of the government right now, but if it is the wish of committee that this be undertaken, that we follow Manitoba’s lead with respect to AEDs, I’d be happy to listen to committee and take that forth to Cabinet. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Just to let the Member know that the Clerk’s office is ordering one right now, so we’ll have it in the building.

---Applause

I think we now need two of them: one on the Members’ side, the Ministers’ side and my office. We’d need three.

---Laughter

Anyway, a good question, Ms. Bisaro.

The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realized after I sat down, all happy after my exchange of questions with the Minister of Justice, that I still really didn’t know the answer to my question, so let me ask it more directly. Is there any impediment to the Northwest Territories creating another level of police force, police officer in the Northwest Territories, to work in cooperation but outside of the rules imposed by the national RCMP but work in cooperation with the RCMP? Is there any impediment to us doing that as a territory?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe there is. However, it would certainly cost a great deal of money to look at providing that level of service across the Northwest Territories.

I’m not suggesting it should be available, that level of policing should be available across the Northwest Territories. I’m suggesting it should be in the communities where there is no police presence at this time and where the RCMP cannot operate with a single member detachment and all those other rules that go along with the RCMP. I’m not suggesting all communities; I’m suggesting only those communities that do not have a police presence now.

Could we create a made-in-the-North for-the-North group of officers to serve in those communities?

Again, I would say yes, there’s a chance that that could happen. Again, we have to be creative. We have to be looking at any way and means to increase the safety of our communities across the Northwest Territories, and the Member brings up a good suggestion. We are doing everything we can by working with the RCMP to ensure that our communities are safe. We’ve got policing plans in place today. We’ve got opportunities, as I mentioned, in communities like Tsiigehtchic, and perhaps Gameti and Wrigley, on getting officers to overnight in those communities. We’re looking at safe houses. We’re looking at other opportunities to continue to work with community leaders on providing safe communities here in the Northwest Territories. I thank the Member for her suggestion.

I do appreciate the fact that RCMP are willing to go into the communities on visits and stay overnight in those communities, but I am talking about resident police officers in the community that are there, that know the community,

that may even be from the community, that are Northerners.

Could the Minister tell me if there has ever been a discussion with the RCMP on such an idea, and what kind of efficiencies we could realize by trying to create such a group of police officers, perhaps with the cooperation of the RCMP? There is no sense in reinventing everything. Maybe they would be willing to cooperate with us on their training services and there would obviously have to be some very strong communication between these two levels of policing services. I’d like to ask the Minister, has that ever been canvassed with the RCMP?

At almost every opportunity the issue of community policing, First Nations policing, Aboriginal Constable Program is raised with the RCMP. That is something that our government is very much interested in seeing advanced.

As I mentioned to the Member in my first set of responses to her, there was no uptake in the last Aboriginal Constable Program that was set to go to Depot in the fall of 2013. I believe we had one individual from the Northwest Territories that was set to take the training. We have two spots reserved for us when that program does get off the ground in 2015. The individual that had applied is still interested, I understand, so we will have two there.

We also, again, have to continue to pursue the First Nations policing with the Yukon and Nunavut and see where we can get with the federal government on funding under that initiative. I think that the idea that the Member has certainly has some merit, and if we can get some funding through that program, that is something that we could take a look at.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to follow up on the assertion from the Minister again, that there was very little interest or uptake in the Aboriginal Constable Program, which was an opportunity.

I’d like to ask who led the effort to recruit and generate interest in these positions. Was it our government or was it the RCMP?

I’ve been the Minister of Justice for four months. That’s something that goes before my starting in this position as Minister of Justice. That’s something that I certainly can find out for the Member and I will get that information to her.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We take every opportunity to sit down with industry and just recently we had the opportunity. I know, through the budget address, we’re looking at increasing the population by 2,000 residents here in the Northwest Territories over the next five years. We’re not going to do that if we don’t have buy-in from the mining companies here in the Northwest Territories that are big employers here. We need to continue that dialogue, and we will continue that dialogue on trying to find a way and a means to attract people to live in the Northwest Territories and be residents here.

I also must say that on the procurement side of things, the mines here in the Northwest Territories, since Ekati opened in the late 1990s, have almost 70 percent northern procurement totalling close to $10 billion of northern procurement here. On the employment side, it is a challenging environment across Canada for skilled labour, and we do know that just recently with the sale of Ekati Mine to Dominion Diamond Mining, Dominion has moved their head office from Toronto to Yellowknife. We’re very excited for that opportunity. They are moving positions from Toronto to Yellowknife. In talking to the mining companies, they’re very much interested in seeing more people living here in the Northwest Territories.

By the way, that mine promotion statement was brought to you by the Minister of ITI that everything’s fine.

The question for the public here is – now on to the next issue – building capacity. One agreement had highlighted 38 percent of material, equipment and purchasing through the construction phase would be done locally in the Northwest Territories. Furthermore, when they went on to operations, the goods and services at 32 percent would be purchased in the Northwest Territories.

The question to the Minister of ITI is: How does the public know that they’re living up to their agreement in a clear and comprehensive manner? In other words, how is ITI communicating to this public, because there’s opportunities, as I said in my Member’s statement today, to publicize these things annually in a newspaper that the public can see, because quite frankly, they don’t believe this is happening.

There are reports that are done annually. If the Member wants to know where one report is or if he’s looking for a various report from any one of the socio-economic agreements we have with the existing diamond mines, I’d be happy to help him find that.

The Minister seems to be missing the opportunity. Here is the chance for us to publicize things like our business building capacity section as highlighted in the socio-economic agreements, our cultural and community well-being results. Why doesn’t the Minister seize the opportunity and start publicizing these annually in a newspaper to show the everyday citizen who wants to know are Northerners being employed, are they meeting up to these agreements, and what is the government if they’re not. Will he consider that and do that?

Mr. Speaker, that’s something that we could discuss with the companies that we have socio-economic agreements with. Again, I know there’s interest from the mining companies to get in front of the members’ committee to discuss the situation that he talks about with the performance of the SEAs. Again, that offer is out there. We would like to have the opportunity to get in front of the committee to talk about the issues that are in front of us on employment and opportunities to get people to live here in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2012 Diavik provided over $300,000 to Northerners in various ways under the culture and community well-being. That’s something to be very proud of. But we shouldn’t have to worry about checking with the feelings of the mining industry when these reports

are given back to the government for the people of the Northwest Territories to ensure the socio-economic agreements are being lived up to. I don’t care how the mines feel; I want the government to show that they’re with the people, not protecting the mines.

Would the Minister agree today to publicize these things in a clear and comprehensive manner to ensure that the public knows that they are looking out for their interest and not catering to the mine’s interest? Thank you.