Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is: I ask the Minister to provide me with a briefing so I can advertise and market this new service this year within the community I represent. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we will be glad to provide a package for the Member. I know that we do have an early childhood consultant in the Sahtu region who has been working with various stakeholders to see what options we have to provide daycares in the community of Norman Wells. We will get that package to the Member, and maybe we will also see if we can set up a meeting with our early childhood consultant to see all the work that has been provided to the stakeholders and the options of possibly, if we can't find a building, looking at a day home that is not a public housing unit.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any prefix, you dial 1-1-1-,1 gets you the ambulance. Any prefix, you dial 2-2-2-2, gets you the fire department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Almost full marks to the Minister. He just had them in the wrong order. Sorry, I didn't really mean that as a trick question, but I guess when we tried some of these numbers ourselves, any permutation, 873, 669 goes with 1-1-1, 2-2-2, and you get the emergency numbers in Yellowknife. But if you phone 911, you get a recording that says there is no 911 service. Who actually has control over that recorded message, and is it not possible to change it to provide clear information on just what numbers should be called?

Mr. Speaker, I will commit to the Member that I will follow up on that and see if it could be redirected to the (inaudible). The Member is correct. 911 is an issue that's been in the Assembly, I think, for the last ten years. We are starting to hear more and more about it, and we had done some work on it, but I will go back to my commitment to the Member that we will look and see what we can do to try and forward them to the proper numbers.

I thank the Minister for his response. I think it's an easy, quick thing that we might be able to do to at least start us down that path, so I appreciate his commitment there. I am wondering, though, about phased introduction of 911 service. One study proposal is to expand the dispatch centre already in place for the city of Yellowknife, and in fact, in the Yukon, Whitehorse introduced 911, and it was rolled out to the communities. Will the Minister consider that sort of option here for the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, once the report was done and after exploring some options, it was determined that a phased-in implementation would probably work the best. There is some cost involved with that, and I believe there is some legislation that needs to be developed. Again, we have heard from the NWT Association of Communities and people across the territory, especially in the larger communities, the importance of this. The Member said in his statement before, I think we have studied this to death, and now is the time to implement some of the recommendations of the study, and I will commit to doing my part as I did to the Member for Hay River North to try and see if we can do this. Part of the pressures that we're feeling on the financial side; if we can help alleviate some of those pressures so we are able to invest in some of the new initiatives. We heard some Members talking about the need for a new school. Everybody has a financial issue that they want resolved. If we can alleviate some of the pressures of our current fiscal situation, then that will give us the opportunity to implement a lot of the new initiatives.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and once again, thanks to the Minister for that. Just stay tuned. I have a reply to the budget address a little later. There are some good ideas in there, I hope. I have one other idea that I'd like to pitch with the Minister. There was a recent court case where Bell lost a court case about non-existing 911 services, and that was recently a recent settlement coming out of that. Congratulations to the Andersons for bringing that case forward in their public service. Now that it's out of the courts, maybe it is time that we look at approaching Bell and the Andersons to become part of the solution here as well. Will the Minister commit to consulting Bell and the Andersons to seek renewed opportunities for introduction of 911 service in the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we need to look at all of our options. If that is one of the options then maybe they can give us a million dollars to implement 911. It doesn't hurt to ask. But again, this is an issue that I would like to see resolved. It started 10 years ago, and my answer at the time or when I first got to the MACA ministry was that because of technology and the lack of cell phones across the Northwest Territories, technology has improved. That's all been taken care of. There is no reason, I think, other than financial, why we shouldn't look at implementing 911 on a phased-in approach as recommended by the report and as supported by pretty well everybody including the NWT Association of Communities. As I made the commitment to the Member from Hay River North, I will make the commitment to the Member for Frame Lake that I will do what I can to see if we can move this initiative forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, we had a respected elder that was part of the Stanton Indigenous elders advisory committee approach me about concerns in Wrigley with the RCMP. My question is to my

favourite

Minister, who is walking out the door, but…

---Laughter

I'm just messing with you.

This is a question for the Minister of Justice. Can the Minister of Justice please provide... Does the RCMP have a schedule for going into the community of Wrigley, and is it posted? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Justice.

Mr. Speaker, I'm not entirely sure I understood the question. I know that the RCMP, apart from the places where they have detachments, do patrols into all of the communities where there are no detachments. I don't know if they'd be posted in advance. That would kind of defeat the purpose, I think, of having that sort of activity. I'm not being facetious; I am trying to answer the question. I'm not entirely sure that I entirely understood the question, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his answer. I'm not trying to catch you, either, because right now it's not posted, which I understand, but they come in on a regular basis at the regular time. Can the Minister work with the RCMP to change up the schedule, including going in weekends and maybe even staying overnight, so that the people that are abusing the system in Wrigley can be caught or be addressed, so that the regular people of the residence will feel safe?

Probably one of the points of having these patrols is to make them irregular so that those that perhaps would want to know when the police are coming won't know when the police are coming. I do understand, however, that there is a necessity of the police to go on regular patrols, which I understand they do. Whether those patrols are on a scheduled basis or not is really up to the RCMP. Although we do fund the RCMP to the tune of, I think, $45 million a year, 70 per cent of their budget, I do not have much control, or any control, and perhaps I shouldn't, over their day-to-day operations. I can, however, bring the Member's concern to the RCMP, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his answer. I understand that, you know, we don't control it and we pay for part of their salary and that. The big concern in the communities is that the people that are breaking the laws are getting away with things and elders are feeling threatened or concerned about the well-being of the community. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister talk to the RCMP as well about checking vehicle registration, people's insurance, and their drivers'

licences

in these communities when they're there?

The Member does bring up legitimate concerns. We're not in a position, of course, to have detachments in every single community. Most of the communities do have detachments; those that don't are subject to regular patrols by the RCMP. I can bring the concerns of the Member, again, to the RCMP. I expect, when they go to the communities, they do check on the items that were mentioned in the question, so I will bring these concerns to the RCMP. I think they would be largely aware of them in any case, but I can't really direct them to change their policy. That's really up to them.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I thank the Minister for his answer. Again, it is a concern; know where the detachment is; it's in Fort Simpson. The two people, two RCMP members, that are supposed to represent Wrigley, live in Fort Simpson. I understand where they are. I know who these individuals are, and they do a great job. Don't get me wrong; they're doing a great job. However, there are concerns within the communities that the service is not being provided. Can the Minister work with me to get the detachment to work with some of the elders in the community so they can hear the concerns and work out a plan that would be beneficial for the safety of the community and so the issues that they are bringing to my attention can be resolved? Thank you.

As I said previously, I have very little control over the day-to-day operations of the RCMP. I can, however, undertake to bring these concerns that have been mentioned in the Member's questions to the RCMP. Again, all of the communities in the Northwest Territories do have police protection. Not all of the protection is provided by an on-site detachment. In a review of this matter and looking at the financials, we were given to understand that, approximately, the cost of establishing new detachments would be $11 million, an unacceptably high cost, so the concerns are legitimate. I will bring them to the RCMP. I imagine, to a large extent, they are already aware of these concerns, because they have been expressed previously, but I will repeat them to the RCMP.