Thank you. So what's the total expenditure of the program? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. The budget is $303,000 per year. Thank you.

Thank you. Member to Range Lake.

And how many officers does that fund -- or positions, I guess, in the community? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. There are two community safety officers. Thanks.

Thank you. The Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program evaluation, what does that entail? Are they engaging -- will it engage with members of the community as well to get feedback from them in addition to -- I'll just leave it open ended. Like, what will it evaluate? How will that -- what's the methodology around the evaluation? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. So they will be looking at the community partnerships and the activities that were undertaken, the number of calls for support, as well as the impact on the RCMP calls for support, and prisoner counts. So I don't have the exact details. I don't have the evaluation framework here, but I would imagine that when you look at things like community partnerships and activities, there's interviews with other groups in the community and things like that. But once that evaluation framework is finalized, we can share that. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you. Thank you to the Premier. This is a really great program, I just wanted to say, and I think it should be -- I mean, hopefully, the evaluation comes back that it's cost effective and is reducing calls and all the things we want it to do. I know that several years ago now the City of Yellowknife had proposed a similar program. I think it was called the community safety officer program to the government of the day. And there was a concern around funding. I think the conversation was, if we can find the money, then we'll support it.

Is there -- could this -- if Yellowknife or a larger centre was interested in a program like this, would there be support from the department now? Because I appreciate that this is a pilot, but I think this is a -- there's a need for this in just about every community. And it would be interesting to see how it would develop in a larger centre, especially given my colleague from Yellowknife Centre spoke about, like, the need for community policing and getting out of the car and on the street and talking to people, and CSOs seem like a good fit for that model. So is there the potential that this could work in Yellowknife or Hay River or a larger centre? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go over to the Minister.

Thank you. I believe there's potential that it could work in a lot of places, but it's the funding issue that is, I would say, the holdup right now. This is federally funded. And when I last met with the Minister of public safety -- or I guess the previous time -- this was discussed, and we did talk about the success of this program understanding there isn't an evaluation yet. And there was interest, and it does appear that the federal government is interested in this. And so we hope that this program, the evaluation will show that it is successful, and then we can move into other communities.

With the Department of Justice, most of the money is allocated to the courts and to the RCMP and to corrections and so anything additional we do, it comes through federal funding for the most part. So that's what it's contingent upon. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you. And, yeah, I assume that was the answer but if you need support, please bring it to the standing committee. I'm sure we'll write you a letter.

Switching gears, the Protection against Family Violence Act is scheduled to be updated. Could the Minister speak to what changes are being contemplated by the department? Thank you.

Thank you. I will to go to the Minister.

Thank you. If you could just give me one moment while I turn to that page, thanks.

Thank you. So I don't have a lot of detail on that, but one of the issues that has been identified is who is included in that definition under the Act. And so that's one area that we're looking at. And the other, we're also looking at other amendments. But I can get back to the Members with more information on that specific legislative initiative. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you. And I appreciate that we will -- I mean, it's legislation, it's going to be proposed, we will see it. I just was curious about what is being contemplated because it's not clear in the list of legislative proposals that are currently out.

Well, yeah no, I think I'm good. Thank you. This has been -- again, I think this is -- this is good detail in here. There's good programming and support for the men's healing program. I'm glad to see the funding increased and continued to maintain that level. It was something that we looked at very closely in the 18th Assembly, and I'm glad to see it continue here. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is on the descriptions of cost shared agreements. To a large degree, we're dependent on our federal counterpart to assist with resources and if there's such a high change in our society for increased services and in justice, rehabilitation, counselling, those types of related services, is it the department's wishes or are they going to seek further agreements to cover some of the shortfalls that we're experiencing in the area of justice and rehabilitation? Are we going back to the federal government for more money? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.