Thank you, Mr. Chair. Recruiting local people to perform local services is, I believe, something that everyone wants to see. With respect to, though, the specific recruitment efforts of the RCMP, I am hesitant to make any commitments on their behalf, but I agree with the Member. I certainly already do meet with our "G" Division commanding officer, the partners that we have in the delivery of the policing services. I will continue to do so, and I will raise with them recruitment targets. The last time we met, I recall very specifically that they took some pride in the number of recruitments that they have. I believe in fact that they have a dedicated recruitment officer here in the Northwest Territories. I will confirm that, and I will confirm it back to the Member. That was my recollection, is that they are in fact quite proud of the efforts that they are making to recruit Northerners to the RCMP service. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. Obviously, I would like to see up-and-coming training on the "G" Division as has happened at the depot. I know there has been some in-term exposure for some northern students. Just so it happens, one of my daughters was interested, so she pursued it through her high school. She had a week, I believe it was a week or 10 days, at the depot, and obviously, she is interested now. She wants to be a cop after she gets her degree, so I think we need to do more of those areas of recruitment and promotion. I am glad the Minister is willing to sit down with the chief commanding officer to deal with this matter.

Mr. Chair, I would like to focus on 33 communities, since we are talking about community justice and the conversation, as well, in her opening remarks: working with the RCMP to ensure 33 communities of Northwest Territories have a policing priority action plan. As you know, Mr. Chair, not all communities have RCMP detachments, and I do believe we did away with that. We are not building any more detachments. Is that the understanding the Minister has? Masi, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Mr. Chair, the cost of a new detachment is approximately $7 to $10 million simply to build it. That is notwithstanding the several millions of dollars of continuing maintenance thereafter, so that is not in the immediate capital plan. I am happy to answer that question. I am just not sure if there are more detailed questions about policing services as opposed to community policing. I guess I am a bit in the chair's hands, as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. What I am trying to get at is those communities that do not have detachments, how do we restrain those individuals who get in trouble? I see first-hand in Gameti, they have a restraining chair in one of the offices at the community government offices; it's just a small room. What if we had, like, five of them, five individuals who are making trouble in the community? We only have two officers who every now and then come and visit the community of Gameti. I am just more concerned about the safety aspects of the community. It's not just my community; there are 10 or 11 communities without detachments. I am speaking on all of them. I am speaking on behalf of them, as well. What is the plan going forward to deal with those areas, detaining those individuals who may be causing trouble? We only have two officers in the community, and we are lucky that there has not been a major offence in the community, to deal with this, these matters. Mr. Chair, I am just speaking from a community safety perspective. What is the plan going forward from justice department, working with "G" Division? Masi.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the key areas of engagement that we have already begun as the Department of Justice within the 19^th Assembly is to truly advocate to the federal government to expand the First Nations Policing Program. The First Nations Policing Program provides a different type of funding arrangement between the RCMP and the Government of the Northwest Territories and supports the increase of additional positions within Indigenous communities. Under that program, as it is, there are five additional police officers coming in, in 2021, but it's our view that that program really needs to be expanded so that it can better serve a bigger variety of communities. Right now, those positions are regional, but they are regional to within communities that are already signed into that framework.

Our hope is that, with some advocacy with community partners or with Indigenous governments, the federal government will, in fact, expand that program so that it can be one that benefits more of the communities and we can, as such, better serve exactly the communities that the Member is speaking of. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. I, too, definitely agree that this should be expanded. The First Nations Policing Program has been very successful in the past, and we should be at a point of, as the Justice Department or as a government, we should be matching the GNWT "G" Division, what they offer at the table. There should be a partnership. We talk about partnership as a government, but we shouldn't just be looking to "G" Division to see if they are willing to add more funding. We should be proactive.

Mr. Chair, I only have 30 seconds of my time. One more question I have is the justice committees. Are all committees actively engaged and active as justice committee members? Masi.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can say that all 33 communities are engaged by the Department of Justice towards developing their community justice committees, but that not all communities have the same level of participation amongst their actual committees. There are a handful of communities that, although there has been outreach, are still working to have greater development of their community justice programs. I can tell you, from 2019-2020, that 30 of the 33 did access funding for community justice programs, so those other three, we certainly, as I say, continue to be engaged with them, but there is still some work to be done. Mr. Chair, this is an area in general that, while funding over 2020-2021 is set, it's certainly my hope that this is an area where we can continue to work with community partners and Indigenous governments to really engage the activity within the communities, so that it's really about a partnership, about what's happening on the ground, and not simply us going to them but them joining us and moving community justice forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any more questions with respect to community justice and policing? Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one short question, and it has to do with Aboriginal policing, also, because there is a problem with enforcement on reserve. There has always been a problem. You talked about training and First Nations policing and getting access to the federal program. I think that's a good way of going, and I encourage you to do that. I think that it's very important that Salt River First Nations Reserve has proper enforcement by its own people. I'm just making a comment, and I think it's extremely important. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These kinds of reminders are exactly one of the main benefits of this process. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Just a reminder. I guess we kind of agreed there that we'd just have one round of questions, so just keep that in mind. Are there any further questions with respect to community justice and policing? No further questions. Please turn to page 263. Justice, community justice and policing, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $6,594,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Corrections, beginning on page 266 with information item on page 269. Any questions or comments? Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see that new in the last budget was offender reintegration line. Could the Minister just elaborate on this? Apparently, it's to do with the therapeutic community, but I wasn't aware that the therapeutic community had started operating yet. Could she explain? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The therapeutic community is still under development, but it will start operation during this fiscal year that is under consideration at this point. In fact, the full transition is expected to happen in the fall of 2020, and so this funding is considered to be part of that preparation and it's meant to assist in working with local community partners and to assist in preparing local community partners in order that they can be available to support the re-entry and, well, the therapeutic community itself, so ensuring that individuals who are going through that process have access to services and placements within that community and that there can be outreach done in advance of the full program being rolled out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.