Minister of Justice.

Thank you. So some of the metrics are things like the calls for service received by the community safety officers and the calls for service for the RCMP, has this had an impact on their calls for service. How many nights are people spending in cells, RCMP cells. These are the types of things that we would hope the program would help to address. Anything further I should add? Maybe I'll hand it to Mr. Bancroft; he might have some more information. Thank you.

Mr. Bancroft.

Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I'm assuming if we see those things go down that the program would be a access. So that's good to get awareness of that. I would say, though, there might be another way to look at it that if the CSO might reveal there's more of these incidents rather than less just because there's another body, you know, providing community policing so there should be some nuance, I think when you do the evaluation, to make sure that it's not like, well, things keep going up and we have a CSO so the CSO wasn't effective. So I guess I'll wait eagerly for this report -- or sorry, the eventual evaluation.

So the pivoting to the gun and gang strategy. I know this is a federal contribution that is to assist our community policing towards this. We've heard -- well, not anecdotically but statistically that gun crime is on the rise and has been for the last couple of years. The Standing Committee on Social Development just received a presentation from a local landlord with some pretty frightening imagery and anecdotal evidence -- well, and statistical evidence as well that this is something that is present in the capital. We know it's present everywhere. So what are we doing with this funding to protect our communities? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister of Justice.

Thank you. So this is being used for a number of different initiatives. So one example would be that the department, the department of MACA, health, and along with the RCMP, contributed to bring the Odd Squad to the territories to provide 14 drug awareness presentations to youth in nine different communities. The department is looking to fill justice navigator positions to help support system navigation and case management for individuals being released from custodial sentences. And there's also funding for -- to top up some youth centres to help address -- give kids a place to go. Because when you're wandering around, that's when trouble can start. So those are some of the examples of where the money's being put. Thank you.

Member for Range Lake.

Thank you. And I appreciate that -- yeah, especially that youth piece is really important, and I'm glad to see that we are finding ways to use funding for gang prevention and it's targeted towards youth. But I guess my concern is, like, we have -- war zone's probably too much of an embellishment but, like, we have an increasingly -- increasing incidents of violence on the streets of Yellowknife. I see it all the time because of here, in the apartment buildings, especially where there's concentrations of poverty. So on the gun part of this, I guess the organized crime front, are we doing more -- are we providing more resource to those efforts? I know we have the crime reduction unit at headquarters, but that's much more of a taking on the big fish kind of guys, the organized crime piece. The boots on the ground piece I think is what a lot of people are looking for to feel safe. And is any part of -- well, and not even this funding, but the entire division that does community justice, how are we using these resources to enhance that kind of community policing and the community policing of having, you know, police officers ready and able to react expediently to concerns and, you know, catch people before they -- or catch gangsters before they're committing violent acts against our citizens. Thank you.

Minister of Justice.

Thank you. So this is $800,000 a year for the next few years, and so it's not a lot of money to put a lot of boots on the ground per se. One of the other items I failed to mention that this is funding is a safety analyst position and -- yes, in this division, I guess. And so that's going to help identify where we could put more resources or how we can better utilize our resources.

I'll note that the crime reduction unit, you know, the Member said it's to go after the big fish, I wouldn't necessarily say we have any big fish in the territory when it comes to organized crime. We get a lot of the flunkies and some of the folks who couldn't cut it down south perhaps get sent up this way. And so it is to deal with the day-to-day organized crime, the folks on the ground actually, you know, causing harm to our residents that we are looking at addressing with this funding. Thank you.

Member for Range Lake.

Thank you. No, and, you know, we have to tackle all. This is just the -- the kind of underlying stuff, the underlying conditions of crime, the poverty, the drug addictions, all that, like, there needs to be a broader thing but we do need these resources in place because the problem's gotten just as bad. So I do appreciate that, and I think all those flunkies report back to someone and they, of course, get resourced by people in southern Canada sending them here to cause mayhem in our communities.

Is this where we could find a resource to put social workers or people with those kind of skill sets on patrol with police or community safety officers? That's a model that's had success in the past, Madam Chair. It's something that I know during the election we were asked about, and it's something I certainly support. But it seems like resourcing that is always difficult because our Minister of Health and Social Services will tell us that the social services is stretched pretty thin anyway. So could we -- as we've been flexible with some of this funding towards youth programming and other things, could we find some money here to pilot that kind of project or support that? I know the RCMP are supportive as well. Thank you.

Minister of Justice.

Member for Range Lake.

Thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Premier -- thank you to the Premier, Madam Chair. The men's healing program, real quick, how are the numbers looking for that? I know this is something the Minister and I worked with -- worked on way back in the day, and it's definitely important to our communities and to -- and in particular Indigenous folks who are, you know, as much victims in the system and cycle of violence as anyone else. This is a really good thing. I'm glad to see it in here but is it seeing success? Thank you.

Minister of Justice.

Thank you. Yes, the men's healing program, it's gone through some changes since it was first introduced. We've allowed -- or made multi-year agreements available and so for a number of years, it was fully subscribed. Perhaps I can get Mr. Bancroft to speak on this one and talk about some of the numbers involved and -- yes, I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

Mr. Bancroft.

Thank you. Now, I have Member for Monfwi.

Thank you. Public Safety Canada, where this place -- the program is piloted still, so I just wanted to ask about the crime rate where this program is being piloted. What's the crime rate like now that since they have this program in their community? Hearing of crime of -- you know, of things that's happening in the Northwest Territories especially where there -- we don't have this public safety program or piloted project, Fort Smith. We hear crime in Hay River, Yellowknife, Behchoko, you know, along the highways. And my colleague's from her -- in her riding too as well, you know, but we don't have this so I just wanted to know what is the crime rate like where this program is being piloted? Thank you.