Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How is our only current K-9 unit based in Yellowknife able to serve the needs of the entire Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I can assure the Member that, you know, I'm the Minister of Justice and I'm from Hay River, so these are not questions that I have not asked before. I've had conversations with my colleagues and with the commanding officer about this because I -- you know, I have that same sense as anyone else. Like, who doesn't want a police dog in their community, especially when you're feeling the effects of drugs. So the -- having the K-9 based in Yellowknife allows it to be quickly -- more quickly deployed to locations where it needs, whether that is in the South Slave or elsewhere, and it is often sent down to the South Slave. It also allows for enhanced -- or I guess easier training. There are requirements in place where the handlers and the dogs need training together at the same time. And so if the dog was outside of Yellowknife, it would have to fly into Yellowknife along with the handler, do the training, and fly back. So you'd be looking at three, four days out of the community every single week. So there are circumstances like that as well. There's also been issues with, I think, burnout with the RCMP who just have the one handler who is doing the majority of the work, the one's based in Yellowknife. So, you know, there's a multitude of issues here. And I'll say, if I had an unlimited budget, I'd have two dogs and two handlers in Hay River as well, but that's not the situation we're in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for responding. Knowing what we know now about the drug problems in the Northwest Territories that impacts our homes and our communities, will the Minister take a look at reviewing this whole K-9 unit needed for Hay River and commit to funding that if possible. It's urgently needed here now in the Northwest Territories with the crisis we have and the drug problems. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have discussed this with the RCMP. They are not making that request for an additional K-9 unit so it's hard for me to force it on them if they're not asking for it. That being said, the landscape has changed. The ability for the dogs to go and do random searches of people essentially is not there anymore. And so we need to look at what other tools we can utilize that are going to be more effective given the new legal environment that we're living in. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you. I hear what the Minister is saying and, again, you know, we do have problems that are hitting home, and I'm deeply concerned about it as a Member. Is there -- so if we can fund it and we don't have the money, how can we address this issue to better monitor the drug problems as coming through the borders in the South Slave region here into the Northwest Territories; what can we do different? And can we maybe have a meeting with the RCMP and have them to look at this issue again and see if we could look at funding this again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is -- the commanding officer -- the former commanding officer is now gone but we have an acting commanding officer in that role, and I don't believe that the standing committee has met with that new commanding officer. So I recommend that they reach out and they request a meeting. I think that would be valuable to have these discussions, you know, with the people who would actually be, you know, working with the dogs. But to the Member's question, what can we do to disrupt the drug trade? Mr. Speaker, we're trying. The RCMP have a new strategy. I spoke about it yesterday. We've seen a significant, significant increase in the amount of drugs seized, the amount of charges. We're looking at new legislation. So we are taking steps to address this because, as I've said many times, I recognize the severity of the issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice. Can the Minister speak to what value the Office of the Children's Lawyer has added since its establishment in 2011, including the value of the support it has offered to the roster of lawyers who take on cases advocating for children? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the children's lawyer provided great value, of course. That position is now vacant. But the person who was in there did a lot of work and it's very appreciated, those efforts. The children's lawyer would meet regularly with the panel of children's lawyers. So there's the Office of the Children's Lawyer, and they essentially oversee a panel of lawyers in various places in the territory, I believe one is also in Edmonton, and they assign cases to those panel lawyers. They would also provide some professional development opportunities, do research, keep up to date on what's happening in the world of children's law. They updated the -- they were responsible for updating the policy manual for the office. They were responsible -- or they oversaw the migration of all the data collected by the office into the new legal aid information data base. So they performed a number of different roles. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I understand that the manual for the Office of the Children's Lawyer has been completed. But can the Minister explain how often that manual is supposed to continue to be updated and reviewed and who would be best suited to complete that work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The manual needs to be updated as new -- there's new developments in best practices and case law and things like that. And so in the future, it's possible that the -- those roles will be done by other members of the -- other lawyers in the Legal Aid Commission. We do have a number of lawyers who specialize in family law who deal with children's law. There's opportunities for those staff to have professional development opportunities to learn more about children's law. I'm sure they get notifications in their inbox when there are significant cases that impact the world of children's law. So there is capacity among the other lawyers to undertake that work when needed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the agenda for this government includes amending the Child and Family Services Act to address the 19th Assembly's Standing Committee on Social Development's recommendations and to align the Act with the federal Act respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children and youth. So how does the Minister propose to gain specialized advice about the legal rights of children as part of its review of the Child and Family Services Act, or propose changes to related acts, such as the Children's Law Act or the Family Law Act. So how does the Minister propose to gain advice on -- as we review the Acts during this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As with any initiative, I expect that the relevant department will undertake a thorough review and reach out to experts as needed. I just want to reassure everyone that the Northwest Territories has no shortage of lawyers. I think we have four times the number of lawyers per capita compared to the rest of Canada. There's plenty of legal advice out there for the taking. Thank you.

Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question just would be does the Minister know how many lawyers we have that specifically specialize in children's -- or law -- I don't know if children's law is a thing, but law that specifically pertains to the legal rights of children? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe there are seven panel lawyers who are regularly assigned files by the children's lawyer. So that's just within the territory and those are just the panel lawyers. And I'm not sure how many other lawyers in the territory also have expertise in that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are directed to the Minister of Infrastructure, and it's about security. What -- does the Department of Infrastructure have any policies built around security of buildings for staff and clients? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Infrastructure does have some buildings where we are the owner, other buildings where we are a lessee. And in some cases, we would support other departments. So I'm not sure if the Member's referring to which of those types of situations. We certainly do have a lot of situations where we have had recently retained security firms to perhaps support particular buildings that are within our purview. And as far as policies, I can certainly get back to the Member. If there's a specific policy, there would have been an procurement process that went out in order to identify having security staff when that is deemed appropriate or necessary. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll accept the Minister's offer of that. That said, the next question is do we have any policies that restrict the use of cameras intended for security that do not record sound on any of our assets as a territorial government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to get back to the Member as to whether there is a policy on cameras that restrict sound, if I understand that correctly. I suspect there probably is not such a specific policy, Mr. Speaker, and so if there's a particular issue that the Member's trying to get at here, I'd be happy to hear it. Thank you.