Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d be pleased to respond to the three Members that provided some opening comments.

Starting with Mr. Yakeleya and looking at the RCMP detachments, I want to let Mr. Yakeleya know that our community justice and policing folks met with the chief and SAO from Colville Lake in December of ’14. We are also just coming off a meeting that was held in January with the community again. We’re in the process now of compiling a report from the information we received from the community leaders in Colville Lake. So

we will be working towards a community safety plan for the community of Colville Lake as well.

I have mentioned in the House before that under the new funding arrangement the Government of the Northwest Territories is responsible for 70 percent of the capital costs for new detachments in the Northwest Territories, and that’s something that is going to become an issue if we want to try to put detachments in communities across the territory that don’t currently have detachments. We’re looking at a refurbishment in Inuvik, a big expenditure in Inuvik, and also in Behchoko as well. We’re happy to get into communities. I’ve had the opportunity to travel into some communities to discuss with the leadership in the communities about community safety plans, policing plans and how it is that we can work with the RCMP and work with community leaders around the territory to make communities safer. I’m happy to do that and I will extend an offer to the Member if there are communities, and I know Colville Lake was mentioned here today, if they want to see me in person. If we can get up to the community I’d be more than happy to do that and talk about community safety when I get into the community.

I want to thank the Member for bringing up Mimi Silbert and her experience dealing with inmates and what she could possibly bring to the table. The department has a strong track record of a demonstrated willingness to look at things differently and try new things. I think if we could make contact with her and discuss perhaps an opportunity to come here and try something different, we’d be willing to explore that. So I want to thank the Member for bringing that up today.

On the issue with bootlegging, I had a statement today talking about a number of communities where we’ve had some large seizures in and we’re very pleased to see the work of the RCMP paying dividends and seizing alcohol. We have to continue to get the message out that it’s okay if you see illegal activity taking place in your community, it’s okay to call the authorities, it’s okay to tell somebody about it. That’s the only way we’re going to stop bootleggers and drug dealers from ravaging our communities. I think calling Crime Stoppers, calling the RCMP, it’s okay to do that. We’ve seen far too many tragedies here in the Northwest Territories that involve alcohol and young people and we just have to make that call. I want to impress upon people that it is okay to call the authorities and let them know that there’s illegal activity taking place in your community and that’s how the RCMP were helped in getting those seizures done. It was the help of the public. Again, I want to thank the public that helped the RCMP get that booze out of our communities.

It was mentioned about continuing to educate our communities, our people about alcohol. Anything we can do to work with the Department of Finance on efforts to get that message out we will continue to do that. I know the Member also wanted to thank the RCMP and I agree with you, I don’t think we thank the RCMP enough for the work that they do on behalf of our residents and ourselves each and every day in all of our communities. So I will certainly pass your comments on to the RCMP.

On Mr. Hawkins’ question, we did have some success in finally filling the position, it’s a transfer assignment, an Aboriginal person that was working at the North Slave Correctional Centre is now in that position. That happened some time before Christmas, I don’t have the exact date. So that position now is filled and it was filled internally.

To Ms. Bisaro, the wellness court, we will compile, I’ve got a raft of material. We’ll get something together. I did make a promise to Members to get you an update on what has happened, how it has happened and the success that wellness court has had to date. I will compile that information and I’d be happy to share that with Members at the earliest opportunity. It might take us a little while to put it all together, but you will get it. I’d like to say by the end of this month you’ll have all that information.

As far as which systems need to be updated, I think it’s the fax, the comms (sic). They both need some work. We are currently trying to get some kind of update as to the scope of the work that’s going to be required to update those systems. So that’s work that’s currently ongoing.

We don’t have a community justice committee in every community, but I appreciate the Member’s comments. Where we have them we need to resource them to the best of our abilities.

On the legal aid office, most cases outside of family law are dealt with immediately as required, but the wait times for family law have inched up over the six-month mark. We were at around seven months. Our hope is, and we’ve got some new lawyers on staff, that those times will come back down under six months, but seven months is far too long, and I’ve impressed upon the department the importance of seeing that come back down. So we are working on that and hopefully with the new lawyers we’ll have a handle on that in the very near future. Thank you.