Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Finance Minister tell us if the Government of the Northwest Territories has sought any feedback from Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, on the new Indigenous Employment Policy or the Employment Equity Policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, a letter was sent, firstly, to all Indigenous governments back in October. Around that time, there was also a letter sent to colleagues from all of the Assembly, letting them know that this work was underway. This was, of course, in response to a commitment made in this House, I believe by the Premier, with respect to the Affirmative Action Policy and saying that it was high time to get this work moving. And so that consultative process, as I said, began in October and is continuing now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess maybe the Indigenous governments haven't read it yet. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if she is confident that the Dene, Inuit, and Metis people from the NWT will be supportive of the new Indigenous Employment Policy and the Employment Equity Policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had two Indigenous governments reach out directly to my office to confirm that they wanted an opportunity to have a direct engagement on this. And I know that officials have also spoken with officials from the Department of Finance with respect to the engagements. And, Mr. Speaker, beyond that, though, with respect to what the reaction of individual members, groups, governments might be, that is not mine to presume or assume. What we have attempted to do, Mr. Speaker, is to design having both an Indigenous Employment Policy that is specific and to the Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories as well as an Employment Equity Policy which would finally modernize our system and bring us up to speed with how much of the rest of Canada, or arguably the rest of Canada is functioning, but in keeping with having the Indigenous Employment Policy here is to be reflective of the northern distinctive features that we have. And so it is my hope that we will finally be able to see some change and some movement in the public service so that it can be representative of the people here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why her department did not bring the new Indigenous Employment Policy and the Employment Equity Policy to Regular Members for feedback before it was announced publicly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I do have a letter that I understood had gone to Members in October. Obviously, things don't always go perfectly, and I don't know where those letters sometimes go on the other side. But it was sent in October, alerting them to the fact this was coming. More correspondence was sent in January and February to update as to the progress. I don't have a final policy yet. That's exactly where we're at. We've got a sense of the two policies and what we expect to see in them and how they might work. But as for the final drafts, I don't have them yet. Before they are in a fully final state, I'd be certainly happy to have a briefing with my colleagues to go over what we've heard, what information we've received, and apply that to, again, to the outline that we have before putting that final pen to paper. And so again, certainly looking forward to doing that. I certainly find that it is a helpful process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Thebacha.

Mr. Speaker, if Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, or a majority of the NWT population rejects these two new policies mentioned, will the Finance Minister take that criticism seriously and amend these proposed policies to better reflect the will of the people of the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the human resources and the representation of the population of the North within the public service has been something I've taken very seriously in this role and that the department takes seriously. The Affirmative Action Policy, as it is now, was from 1989. It is woefully out of date. It is not in keeping with best practices. It arguably may not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And it's not showing achievement. We know we're sitting at 30 percent representation of Indigenous people in a territory with 50 percent representation. So we know there's work to be done.

What the policy is seeking to do by splitting it out is having an Indigenous Employment Policy so that we can continue to give a priority to a preference to people of the Northwest Territories -- the Indigenous people of the Northwest Territories while also bringing in an equity policy because we are recognizing that there's distinct groups that are also disadvantaged, including in the Northwest Territories. So people who may be LGBTQ2IA+ peoples, disabled peoples, who aren't right now reflected and given that kind of priority. So it is my hope that we will see that the new way of approaching this targets groups that are underrepresented, does so in a way that is, you know, reflective of the values of the North, and I hope will start to get us to a place where we have a representative public service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reality in the Northwest Territories right now is that the drug trade is expanding. You know, we see, you know, the addictions growing. We see deaths increasing. We see families torn apart. And it's important that we do something before we can't handle it.

So, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Justice tell me what happens when the RCMP seize large amounts of money, or assets, suspected to come from illegal activities; are these seizures made under criminal or civil legislation? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the RCMP has seized money or other property under the Criminal Code or Controlled Drugs and Substances Act or other applicable federal legislation, there's a number of options available to the court with respect to that seized property. If there's been a conviction for any offences for which the accused has been charged, the Crown may make an application to have the court consider whether or not the seized property is related to the offence for which the conviction arose. If the court finds that the seized property is related to the offence, the court may order the seized things to be forfeited. In some circumstances, forfeiture can be sought by the Crown where the individual charged with an offence is not convicted. But those are limited to situations such as where the accused has died, abandoned the property, or cannot be located.

There is also provisions in various pieces of territorial legislation which deal with the forfeiture of seized property when a charge has been laid, some of which require applications and discretionary decisions by the deciding justice. And in some cases, there's automatic forfeiture upon conviction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds very complicated, and I'm not sure if we really accomplish much with it.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me with respect to the illicit drug trades, in the past year how many seizures of cash or assets were made by the RCMP, and how much of that was returned to those that it was seized from? And I realize I'm asking for statistics so I will allow the question to be taken on notice. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member's correct, my last answer was complicated. That's why I read it verbatim so I wouldn't get it wrong. But basically if there is a conviction, then property can be seized. If there is not a conviction, it's a different story altogether.

So I don't have the numbers that the Member is asking. As part of the efforts of the Department of Justice to start turning its mind towards this area, that is one area that we are looking into and I hope to be able to get those numbers at some point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess what I'm trying to do is to find tools for the RCMP and enforcement to, you know, combat drug trade in the Northwest Territories. So I'd ask the Minister to confirm if the department has looked at current civil legislation to see if it can be used to address some of the issues caused by the drug trade. And I'm talking about, for example, the Fire Prevention Act, the Residential Tenancies Act, can we use them as it stands now or can we tweak them so that we can make it so that the RCMP might be able to use it in fighting the drug trade? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And those are the same questions that I am asking. Sometimes drug houses might be fortified and so perhaps there is a way through existing legislation to enter those premises. The Residential Tenancies Act does have provisions which allows for evictions to occur when residents are carrying on illegal activities but that's initiated by the landlord, not by the RCMP. So there are some options available but not what the Member is looking for, but we are exploring those. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, and we're counting on, you know, criminal legislation and it's tough to get convictions sometimes. It takes a long time. And, for instance, you know, I had one constituent who had people in the house under the Residential Tenancies Act trying to get rid of somebody because there was illegal activities there. Well, you got to prove that in court and if you don't, they just stay there.

So, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit his department to undertake a jurisdictional scan and review of civil forfeiture legislation and consider moving it forward in the NWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point in the Assembly, all of the department's resources are committed to other projects. So I can't commit the department to do that work right now. However, as we wrap up the work that is ongoing in this government and move closer to the beginning of the next government, there should be an opportunity for the department to begin putting their mind towards this and start looking into these pieces of legislation.

I know that the civil forfeiture legislation, I believe it's in eight provinces and in Nunavut, it's been tried in Yukon, and it is somewhat of a controversial piece of legislation. So if we do move forward with this, it will likely have to be tailored to the territory, to the people of the territory, and I just hope that, you know, the next government does move with it. I hope they have the stomach for it because there are concerns around this legislation. But as the Member stated, we have to do something. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Justice.