Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it's my job to be concerned about the budget of the Department of Justice and so, of course, I am concerned about these increasing costs.
The increasing costs are due to increasing demands, service demands on the RCMP, and I hear requests all the time from communities, from Indigenous governments, that they want more RCMP. I've never once heard in the territory that someone wants less RCMP.
There is an acknowledgement that perhaps RCMP aren't best suited to do everything, and they would agree with that, and so where we can we need to find ways to supplement those services so that the RCMP aren't focused on doing things that other entities or organizations could be. So because of that, we are piloting a community safety officer program and the hope is that that can expand and then reduce the demands on the RCMP.
Here in Yellowknife, there's been a number of services that have started up over the past number of years, primarily through non-profits, which have reduced the demand on the RCMP. So we are taking steps to address the rising costs.
Each year, the Minister of Justice provides policing priorities to the RCMP. There's four of them. And innovation, fiscal, and -- operational and fiscal innovation is one of those priorities that I put forward to the RCMP this year. Thank you.