Thank you, Member. Minister.

Mr. Chair, no, I hear the Member's point. I hear his concerns. I would note that one of the other things that ICM does deliver is identifying barriers in the services that are provided. Certainly, I can commit to saying that as those barriers are being identified, we do now, in this Assembly, the 19^th Legislative Assembly need to do a better job of ensuring that those barriers are removed. That will have benefits for our residents across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions? Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just want to have a couple of opening remarks. I was looking at page 261, just before the 262 and 263, and you have 331 positions for Yellowknife and 122 for the rest, the regions and the small communities. The way it lists it is North Slave as 246 and headquarters as 85, but very deceiving the way all the booklets that we've been receiving right from the beginning, since I started here; 246 for North Slave and 85 for headquarters, that's 331 positions in this area. Wow, that's a lot of positions.

The ministry used the term "sharing" in a previous reply. Sharing is extremely important when it comes to the wealth of the Northwest Territories. We depend on government positions in the smaller communities and regions, also. At some point, there has to be either more positions developed for the outlying regions and for the small communities. I, too, agree that the Integrated Case Management program is a great program. That's why I said that, if we don't get at least one position in Fort Smith and one in Inuvik, then I'm not going to be voting for the budget. I firmly believe that we have to start somewhere, and I don't see us doing that.

My question is: evaluations are great. I'm sure the evaluation of the integrated case management program had a great evaluation because terms and conditions that are referenced in an evaluation are usually provided by the department, and you know what the outcome is going to be. I like the outcome, but I really would like an outcome, too, for the region of people that I represent in Thebacha. As we should also look after the Inuvik region, for a start. Do you believe in decentralizing some of these programs that are all offered here? I want to know your answer to that.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What I might personally feel or believe is not what should win the day, it's what's best for the Department of Justice, acting as one of the departments in the GNWT.

Mr. Chair, there are three large correctional facilities that ultimately wind up fulfilling the majority of the human resources components. One is here in Yellowknife, one is in Hay River, and one is in Fort Smith. That's the largest component of human resources within the Department of Justice. The other large component is the legal division, which includes a large staffing component that is here in Yellowknife and serves all the departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories, largely here within Yellowknife. There are challenges, certainly, with not going to be building any new correctional facilities in the imminent future. Indeed, there are empty spaces in the ones that we have, fortunately. It is, as I believe, and I've been instructed, the mandate for our all of us to consistently look for opportunities when there are new positions and new programs being created to consistently look for those opportunities to be located in positions elsewhere, outside of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Just want to make a comment here. I've just got to remind Members is that we have moved past the general comments and we're in pages 262 to 265. As well, asking opinions are not in orders, anything directed to the Minister should be through the Chair. Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That number was derived from a range, looking at 248 active participants. It would be roughly about 130 or so. That's just me making a guess without a calculator. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Member for Thebacha.

I want to get back to this whole integrated case management program. It's a void in the communities, and I'm just wondering if the Minister would consider ensuring that the region of Fort Smith and Inuvik will get a position also, because it is void in the community for this program that is required in the community and for the region.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would love to see integrated case management rolled out everywhere. I am a tremendous supporter of this program. Realistically, it is not going to be within the budget that there currently is to establish new offices with these kinds of services in different communities. It's not just a question of the individual human being, but of a support team. Within the integrated case management office and services, there is a certain level of capacity and knowledge that's been built up within the team that exists here. Again, it wouldn't be quite so simple as to take a person and just say that they will be out somewhere else. That said, Mr. Chair, I am committed to finding some solutions. Certainly, over the next fiscal year, within the current budget that's being proposed, to find ways to have the ICM workers that we have here in Yellowknife perhaps better with the GSO offices that exist elsewhere in the other communities. That is a centralized feature that's available to a lot of the communities, although acknowledging not all of them, but it is available in a lot of the communities. There may well be ways that we can better support the collaborative services between these different departments that offer these services, ICM under Justice and then the GSO offices. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.

I just want to remind the Minister that there are a lot of qualified people in other communities, also, besides Yellowknife, and just doing something a little bit differently to ensure that we get the same service as the people of Yellowknife is essential. I think we are not asking for very much. It's a right. We live in the same area. We have this mandate, and I honestly feel that I want you to know that you agree with me, that there are qualified people all over the territories, not only Fort Smith, Inuvik, Yellowknife. The smaller communities have qualified people. Correct?

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Mr. Chair, I believe that the Northwest Territories is full of incredibly qualified people across all of our communities, who can contribute tremendous things to the GNWT and to their communities in a variety of capacities.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha, no further questions. Any further questions? Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. [Translation] Regarding community justice and the RCMP, I would like to ask the Minister a question. The past couple of years, we have been advocating for Aboriginal policing, so I want to ask a question regarding that. [Translation ends]

Community justice and policing, I know that there has been training in the past because I have been involved as the Minister of Justice of the day. We have had a successful outcome training an individual to become almost a full-fledged RCMP officer, without investigation. They are from Hay River, your community. We are obviously a huge supporter of that process. Has there been other training pertaining to Aboriginal policing since then, and how many have we graduated, Mr. Chair? Masi.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It may be that the Member is referencing the special constable program. The special constable program was and is a program that is run under the RCMP. In general, although under the territorial police financing agreement there is a contribution that is made towards funding of training for the RCMP, the Department of Justice in the Northwest Territories does not otherwise have direct control over the different training programs that are offered by the RCMP. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. Usually, the RCMP "G" Division would inquire or talk about recruitment process, and they want to recruit people from the communities. Obviously, that requires training, and we, as a Department of Justice, need to be proactive. Because we talk about money, we can identify funds towards that to train our own people to become full-fledged RCMP officers. We can't always say it's "G" Division, that they approve, that they have to come up with the training requirements, training funding. We have to be proactive, as the justice department, to move forward, to say we want to set the mandate target within five years to produce 20 full-fledged officers. That should be one of the targets. We do not have that. We talk about training here and there. We produced one that I know of out of Hay River. He is still an officer right now, which I am very proud of. Mr. Chair, those are some of the commitments I would like to hear from the Minister going forward, obviously working with the chief commanding officer, if this is something that she is willing to meet with "G" Division, if it's to discuss further training opportunities within Northwest Territories? Masi.