Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very familiar with the community action plan. It's the same thing every year. I've been in leadership in Fort Smith for 14 years as chief. We have two lines: one of them is the priority is drugs; the second is whatever; and the third. Every year has been the same thing, and you've got to sign off on it. Finally, I told them, "Don't come around anymore." Nothing ever comes to fruit anyways. You know, $47.6 million for an independent police force, and have no say on what happens in the community, is unbelievable and unacceptable. I feel very strongly about this.

Sure, we've had some incredible sergeants at different times, and talking about First Nation policing, not all First Nation policing is perfect, either. Lateral systemic racism is even worse than the RCMP, sometimes, with First Nation policing. Yes, we would like First Nation policing, but we have to make sure that they do their job the way they are supposed to do it, and be part of the community, and be visible, not stay at home all day with their families. That's exactly what is happening. Ever since this pandemic hit, it's even worse. They use the excuse about the pandemic, and you can't even get hold of them. You can go buzz the door there, and you have to wait for a good while in the cold if you have a concern. That's happened a few times, even with myself, Madam Chair. Things have got to change, and I want change in this area. When is the last time Commander Zettler has come to Fort Smith to meet there, or even come to Fort Smith to meet with anyone? Ask him that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Did you have any comments, Minister?

I hear the Member's frustration, so I will take that. I appreciate all input. I am still getting a handle on this department, and so I'm glad to hear input from different MLAs from different regions so I know what's going on and what the sense of different organizations related to the department are. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at the biology casework line item. It's a $183,000 item. Just from looking at the page before, it appears this would be the cost-sharing agreement with Public Safety Canada for our part of the DNA work, et cetera, for our legal services. Could the Minister speak to whether or not we have any backlog in DNA testing, that type of work? I may be watching a little bit too much Law & Order SVU, but I'm just curious to know: is that ever an issue for us in the North, where our case work, our biological work, doesn't get processed in time, and does that impact court dates, et cetera? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. We have no backlog. Perhaps, for a bit of history, Ms. Bolstad might be able to enlighten us. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Bolstad.

Thank you, Ms. Bolstad. Member.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's one instance where being a small territory actually benefits us. I have no further questions. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Any further questions under policing services? Seeing none, please turn to page 292. Justice, policing services, operations expenditure summary, 2021-2022 Main Estimates, $48,234,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will now turn to services to government, beginning on page 293, with information on pages up to 296. Questions? Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I have a couple of questions here. There were some media reports about, basically, implementation of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. I had understood that regulations were required first before the full changes that were passed in the last Assembly, almost two years ago, could be brought into force. Perhaps the Minister can provide some clarification of where we're at with the implementation? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The privacy office, which has been centralized in Justice, which we will be coordinating, not necessarily doing all the leg work for all of the departments, has come into effect this month. That should help the GNWT provide more, I don't want to say more streamlined, but I am trying to think of the right word here, coordinated requests. What we are seeing is that there are not more access to information requests; there are more complex requests coming through. That requires a lot of time from departments, so by centralizing this and creating a bit of expertise, the government is better able to respond.

The Member is correct in that the regulations are required for the amendments to the act to come into force. As I have said before in this House, we are still looking at this summer, and that has been a bit delayed with staffing issues in the ATIP office. There are some regulations that will be coming into force sooner. Those are the regulations to reduce some of the fees that are charged for ATIP requests, and those will be coming into force on Friday. Thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that response from the Minister. Certainly, I pushed for him to separate the issue of reducing the fees from the other matters that need to be regulated, so I appreciate that very much. Can the Minister point to me, in the budget here, are there any additional resources, then, for Justice to carry out these additional coordination functions related to ATIP? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. This has been the plan for some time, so those have been accounted for. Perhaps I can ask Ms. Bolstad. I know we had been delayed in implementing this, so I believe the funds were already in the budget. Ms. Bolstad might be able to add some more. Thank you.