Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Justice.

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.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if he believes policing in the NWT is conducted with the highest levels of transparency and accountability? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's varying levels of accountability. I know in jurisdictions in the United States, they elect their sheriffs and you could say that's the ultimate accountability. So we don't have a system like that but we are focusing on ensuring that the RCMP are taking steps to become more transparent and accountable to the public. And I mentioned my policing priorities. One of the other four is accountability and transparency. So I am focusing on this in response to, you know, concerns I've been hearing from people like the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if he believes policing transparency and accountability should be improved in the NWT; and if so, are there any specific tools at the Minister's disposal that he can utilize to do so? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And you can always get better at being more accountable and more transparent. I think that's true for every entity.

One of the tools that I have are those policing priorities which I mentioned. In addition, there are new initiatives that are likely rolling out in the coming year, such as body-worn cameras. And of course, and I mentioned this before, the Territorial Police Service Agreement has a number of checks and balances and a number of ways to ensure that the RCMP are accountable to the department. And as well, there's countless working groups, meetings, local-level meetings, national-regional meetings, that the government is involved with with the RCMP to ensure that we know what the RCMP is doing and that they are accountable to us and their operations are transparent. But there's the other aspect where the RCMP need to be more transparent to the public, just like we all do. And so to that end, I've had discussions with the commanding officer about taking steps to ensure that the public is more aware of what the RCMP are doing. That said, the RCMP are busy, and I think that, you know, that's reflected in the concerns I hear from around the territory, that they want -- the communities want more RCMP. So while I would like for the RCMP to go out and do a lot more community engagement and meet with people and, you know, hold meetings, the fact is they're busy doing what we pay them to do. So yes, we are working on it, and yes, there are tools, and yes, we are utilizing them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if he has had any significant discussions with the federal minister of public safety about potential solutions to improve transparency and accountability of the RCMP and policing services in general? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have significant concerns about the transparency and accountability of the RCMP so I haven't had those types of conversations. That said, I do have regular conversations with the commanding officer of G-division; the department has regular conversations as well. So those conversations are ongoing. And noting the -- your comments earlier, I will keep this last remark brief. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.