Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the Minister's commitment to review this. And we'll just leave it there for now. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I kind of view this OROGO office as a continued allied services to the industry community. And I'm going to say this is probably a real good rate of return on this expense there, Mr. Chair, because our revenues or the royalties received by this industry, I think it's -- I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it's into the millions. So if you're spending $1.2 million, and you're getting back royalties in the neighbourhood of two or three or four, wouldn't you think that would be a good expense on regulatory responsibilities with this area? There's much that this department can do, but we haven't gauged the sense of interest. I wouldn't mind this government would explore over the next 20 months here, on exploring the interest in oil and gas. And it's really not a total expense to us. It's the issuance of exploration rights back in 2010. The rights issue and seeing 5 and $628.7 million in exploration rights across in that area of Norman Wells. But here we have a unique circumstances on the product of LNG being explored by M18, the old -- the owner, the previous owner of that particular well was Devon Canada, and now it is the Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation. So I see they're doing remarkable things, and it won't shock me if we're exporting LNG from that particular location. So it just goes to show that there's potential and there's interest in -- potential and interest to be in this sector. And to keep our staff busy, I was -- I participated into a project that the Sahtu is looking at, and they just kick started it with the first or the second meeting just yesterday. So I attended virtually on that, and they're looking at identifying the old sumps that was once regulated to dispose of drilling contaminants. Now it's no longer a regulatory adjustment or mandatory. And so for them, they are cataloging all the old sumps. And with the well watch program, you can create a number of positions here to hold responsible the drilling company to clean up that mess and recap these sumps that have sunk over the years. So there's some exploration and responsibilities that this department can do, and I look forward to helping in any way I can. But I support the 1.23 costs and view it as a minor cost compared to the overall picture.

So my question to the must is will the Minister recommend that arm's length is organization to work with the Sahtu and also explore the option of exercising or executing the rights issuance process? Thank you.

Thank you. I want to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member's enthusiasm over oil and gas. I'm a child of oil and gas myself. I wouldn't be here if not for oil and gas in the Beaufort Delta. But it is not my place to actually sort of advocate to the regulator or make recommendation to the regulator. That being said, they're happy to receive a reach out and the Member himself could make those connections. I'm just not -- the reason it is in here in Justice is because Justice is removed from that industry, and it is -- it's for the independence of the organization. And so for that reason I do stay out of those types of conversations. Thank you.

Thank you. Go back to the Member from Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Another area of exploration and interest is back in my workdays here when Imperial Oil had their own community. They had their own store, and it was the only one in town. They had their own post office and their own dump site. And their own dump site now is in the area of the airport. So it's outside the proven area agreement but it's still their responsibility, in my opinion, and I think, you know, there might be some value in exploring the clean-up exercise before Norman Wells disappears and moves into -- or the oil field moves into reclamation. So who's going to be responsible for reclaiming that old site? So I think there's a number of witnesses in the Sahtu that can confirm, aside from myself, that's your damage or your responsibility, you're liable for this contaminated site, and get it cleaned up so we can create some jobs and dispose of this liability, which is sitting on government property. And you never know, the excavation might lead to drilling a hole all the way to China so we'll have lots of material to backfill there, similar to what they're doing up in the Tuk area, creating a lot of jobs in this area of reclamation. Thank you. I share that information, so another to-do list possibly.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to pass at this time. I think my Member from the Sahtu said it clear enough. Thank you.

Thank you. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Oh, myself? No, I support the comments provided by my good colleague for the Sahtu. So I support his concerns. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, no further questions, we'll continue on. No further questions, okay, so please turn to page 317. Justice, Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas, operations expenditures summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $1,230,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to the policing services on page 319. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My first question is just on the First Nations policing. So in March 2024, the Office of the Auditor General issued a performance audit on the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program. The audit found that Public Safety Canada and the RCMP have not worked in partnership with Indigenous communities to provide equitable access to policing services, nor to deliver tailored policing services. So significant concerns exist around whether requirements set out in policing agreements are being met and whether the program is achieving its intended results. My first question is whether the Minister is concerned about these findings?

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

Thank you. So the situation in the Northwest Territories is different from the rest of Canada, and the way that the First Nation and Inuit Policing Program works up here is essentially integrated in many ways into the regular force, and so they report to the same commanding officers. And our contract policing services, they actually operate in a sort of community policing model, which is what the First Nation and Inuit Policing Program is intended to do. And so it's actually -- the report is not necessarily speaking about the situation in the Northwest Territories. It's more about the other programs in southern Canada that are distinct from the other police services. Thank you.

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

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. My next question is on page 208 of the business plan. There's definitely a lot of comments about this in opening comments from Members. There's a plan to kind of bring forward a new territorial crime unit within the RCMP G-division to disrupt illicit drug supply. And so, yeah, my question isn't so much -- how do I put this? So I guess bottom line is what I'm asking is what evidence has the department used to inform the approach of kind of increasing policing services in response to this? And, you know, I would just note that there was some comments earlier that -- not today, but previously in the House, the Premier has indicated we've never had more police. And he also indicated that crime is as high as ever. And so it seems that in response to increasing police, crime is still rising. So I'd just like to hear some discussion on kind of what kind of evidence we're using to support this approach to ensure that we are, you know, taking an evidence-informed approach to these issues. Thank you.

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

Thank you. In terms of the level of -- or the number of police and the level of crime, we're trying to catch up to the level of crime. And so it is not that more police aren't helping the situation, but the crime rate is rising. We heard yesterday for an hour about the impact drugs are having on communities. I don't need to speak any further to that. That was discussed.

In terms of the increases to the RCMP budget, the way this works is that the RCMP, they look at their operations across the territory, they identify areas where they're feeling pressure, and we've seen some communities with spikes in crime that have been sustained, and they -- there needs to be an increase in the presence in those communities to help deal with the volume of calls. Officers get burnt out, things like that, so. And when that situation arises, the RCMP put together a business case, they bring it to the Department of Justice, and work with the Department of Justice to figure out how they can bring forward something for the Cabinet, for FMB, and for this House to approve. And so there's a bit of back and forth. But it is very much an evidence-based process.

In terms of the crime reduction unit, there have been some changes to the reporting structure in the RCMP. If we had no contract police service, if we -- if the GNWT did not hire the RCMP to be our police force, there would still be RCMP in the territory because the federal government has federal RCMP who focus on areas that the federal government wants to focus on. And so those areas of focus are things like organized crime, money laundering, guns. And so those -- that federal unit now is operating a little more independently from the G-division but still working with G-division. And so this crime reduction unit is going to fill the little -- the bit of a void that was left there, but also supplement the existing resources, because now we have the federal unit that can work with the crime reduction unit because we're seeing things like organized crime, like drugs. So this really is an enhancement of our services based on the needs that we're seeing.

In addition, there are sometimes increases based on new standards. So if the RCMP come up with a new standard saying we need this many officers in a community at any given time, then we need to bring forward an appropriation for that many officers if we need to bring the numbers up. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I appreciate the Premier's clarification on that and getting that out in the public. And, you know, I note that further in the business plan, there's -- there's talk of enhancing public education. And I guess, you know, if the Premier could, I would appreciate him speaking to kind of measures that we're taking for a wholistic approach, noting that, you know, I don't question that police are obviously needed to deal with gang violence, with illegal guns, things like that. Obviously that's not something a social worker can get into. But the root cause of the drug addiction is what causes the demand that brings these -- I can't remember. I think the word was predators used by a previous Member, but anyways. The demand that's bringing, you know, drug dealers into the communities and these gangs into the communities is ultimately the source, right. So I'm just curious to hear from the Premier on kind of the other side of this, the more wholistic side of kind of how we're addressing both demand and, you know, policing supply. Thanks.

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