Does committee agree that we’ve concluded consideration of Industry, Tourism and Investment?

Thank you, committee. At this time I’d like to thank our witnesses for joining us here, Ms. Kaylo and Ms. Stanislaus and, of course, Minister Ramsay. If I can get the Sergeant- at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the House, please.

Committee, as we agreed upon earlier, we’re going to continue on with our capital estimates here with the Department of Justice. With that, I’ll turn it over to the Minister responsible to see if he has any witnesses he’d like to bring in. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we do have witnesses. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could please escort the witnesses into the House.

Minister Ramsay, if you would be kind enough to introduce your witnesses to the House, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m pleased to introduce the witnesses who I have with me today. To my left is Sylvia Haener, deputy minister, Department of Justice; to my right is Le

anne Hannah. She’s the acting director of finance

with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Ms. Hannah, Ms. Haener, welcome to the House. Committee, again, we are Justice, which is pages 51 and onward. We’re going to turn it over to general comments. General comments, Justice. Is committee prepared to go into detail?

Thank you, committee. Committee, we’re actually going to defer page 51 until consideration of the

activity as a whole. I’ll get

you to turn to page 52, corrections, infrastructure investments, $7.846 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Page 54, court services, infrastructure investments, $867,000. Does committee agree? Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a question about the sheriff’s vehicle. What kind of a

vehicle is it that is required? This says a suburban or similar full-size to transport court party. I guess, how big is the court party? How big does this vehicle need to be? Are we looking at a fairly expensive vehicle or is it, you know, similar price to something you or I would buy off the lot that isn’t going to break the bank? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The sheriff’s vehicle is an eight-person vehicle. It’s required to be that size and it transports court parties. Here in Yellowknife it would transport the court party to Behchoko, so it has to be of a certain size. The cost on a vehicle of that nature is somewhere in the area of $65,000. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, that seems like a heck of a lot of money for a vehicle. I guess the $65,000, is that sort of a standard price for a vehicle this size, or is this a speciality vehicle, apart from the size of it that will carry eight people? Is it speciality in that it has extra security measures or extra safety measures? Is it bulletproof, says my colleague.

It just seems

like that’s an awful lot of money. I would

have presumed we could get a vehicle of that size and that capability for, I don’t know, 10 or 20 thousand dollars less. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chairman, that is the going price for a vehicle of that nature. In fact, it might be a little bit on the low side when you look at vehicles in that class that have to carry up to eight people. Also, the court party would have their documents and other necessary equipment with them when they travel, so it is necessary to have a vehicle of this size.

As far as whether the vehicle would be specially outfitted, no, it wouldn’t. It would need to have towing capacity for potential seizures and also a radio would be installed in the vehicle. But other than that, there are no special adjustments to that vehicle that will be made. Thank you.

I think I may have forgotten my question. Oh, we have two vehicles, as I understand it, in Yellowknife, two sheriff

’s vehicles in

Yellowknife. So I understand that this one that is being replaced is the one that is used to transport the court party. Does the other vehicle need to be of the same size and the same expense, or is it a bit more of a light-duty vehicle for travel in and around Yellowknife? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the other vehicle will be sent to Hay River to replace a sheriff’s vehicle in Hay River. So, yes, it will need to be of a similar class with the seating capacity, equipment, storage capacity, towing capacity, and that vehicle, when the new one comes on line, the existing vehicle will be put and utilized in the community of Hay River. Again, the ability to transport the court party is

paramount in this. We’ll have one in Hay River and one here in Yellowknife. Thank you.

So now I’m confused. I think the

background information we got said that there are three vehicles: one in Hay River, two in Yellowknife. I hope you don’t send the vehicle that we are replacing to Hay River,

because I understand that it’s

beyond repair. But then Hay River can deal with that.

I’m talking about the second vehicle here in Yellowknife. Does it need to be as much of a heavy- duty vehicle as this one that we’re currently buying?

Mr. Chairman, sorry for the confusion. There are two vehicles here in Yellowknife and one in Hay River. The one that’s in Hay River currently is going to be surplused. One of the vehicles is going to move from Yellowknife to Hay River and a new vehicle will be purchased to replace that vehicle in Yellowknife, so there still will be two vehicles in Yellowknife. As I mentioned in my previous comment, if the vehicle is used to have the court party in, say, Behchoko, it’s very important that the sheriff’s office have a vehicle here in Yellowknife. There is definitely a requirement to have two of these vehicles on hand to carry out the duties of the sheriff’s office. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that, that we need two vehicles. But it would seem to me that we’re not sending two vehicles to Behchoko every day, so can the second vehicle that is here not be a bit more of a light-duty vehicle? Thank you.