Mr. Chair, I understand that there are four persons involved. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. That's great. As I mentioned, you know, looking back over the years we had a good uptake. I believe it was in the '90s, somewhere around there. I've seen a number of officers, First Nations, that actually succeeded, you know, became officers, which is great, but we'd like to see more. I know a few years back there was a lot of advertising for this. I haven't seen very much lately, but, you know, what's the plan for this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.

I understand that Public Safety Canada is doing a review of the First Nations Policing Program and that they will be coming north for a conference, I'm told, in September. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's great news. I hope the committee is invited to that. Also, you know, as we may all know, for those that have been around for a bit, we hear stories of all the special constables that we had back, way back when the RCMP first started coming to the Territory. I think that was very successful; they worked hand in hand with the RCMP and without them, they wouldn't have found Albert Johnson, I don't think.

--- Laughter

That sort of program was very successful. It would be great to see something similar to that starting up again. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.

Mr. Chair, I think we're all cognizant of the great contribution of special constables. In the past, it did seem to me, and I arrived in the North as that program was kind of coming to an end, that there were, however, not many of our Aboriginal citizens who were actually full-fledged members of the RCMP. That started changing. So I think they found the program to be less important than it had been previously. The Member's point is well taken. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. There's nothing further from Mr. Blake. Do I have any more comments or questions on Policing Services? Seeing Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what steps is the government taking to draft the legislation for the ombudsman? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. I'm not sure if this is the correct section. I'll get the Minister to clarify. Minister.

Mr. Chair, of course, as all Members will know, the position of the ombudsman is one of the matters that we're going to be discussing at the summer caucus. So I expect that, after those discussions, we'll have a better idea about how this legislation would proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Would this topic be better discussed at maybe the department total or in a different section, Mr. Vanthuyne?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. According to the description on page 281 it indicates that "the legal division provides advice and representation to all GNWT departments and specified public agencies. GNWT bills and regulations are prepared by legislative drafters in legislation division." According to our mandate, we've indicated that Justice will be the oversight for this and so as much as I respect the Minister's reply, this is the public and open opportunity to ask these questions and I'm hopeful that the Minister can give a respective and meaningful reply. It's a fairly simple one. I'm just asking what steps the department is taking to draft the legislation on the Office of the Ombudsman. I respect that to some degree it's going to be talked about in the caucus meeting, however, I'm going to-- the same question will be asked.

So I leave it to the Minister to reply to that again and I'll throw out another question while we're at it: will the department be engaging the public to get meaningful input? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. You referred to page 281 which is part of the next section, services to government. If there's no further question on page 280, policing services, I'll call this section now and then we can move on and you'll be on the top of the list for the next section.

I will call the page. Justice, policing services, operations expenditure summary, total activity, $44,729,000. Agreed?

We'll now move on to services to government. We have the operations expenditure summary on page 282. We will first discuss the detail starting with page 283. Comments or questions on 283? Seeing none, we can move on to page 284. Do we have comments or questions on 284, active positions? Seeing none. Page 282, the operations expenditure summary. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you for putting me in order, Mr. Chairman, now I'll calmly ask what steps is the department taking to draft legislation for the office of the ombudsman? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.

Mr. Chair, the government is, of course, committed to filling the prior commitments developed in our mandate and is currently reviewing the feasibility of various options for establishing the office of the ombudsman. There are many different examples, and I know that in the last Assembly there was a good deal of time spent on this, and it may have been that there had even been some drafting. The department is developing a work plan which will establish timelines and deliverables relating this aspect of the mandate.

Now, the legislation, to a large extent, will be determined by our discussions in the summer because, as I mentioned, there are many different models. So after we have decided which model we're going to pursue it would seem to me that at that point legislation could be contemplated. I don't think there would be much point in working up legislation at this point as we're not certain which model we're going to pursue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.