Debates of Feb. 13th, 2026

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, the contract will remain the same. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So my understanding is that with the mandate from the national headquarters of the RCMP for the critical incident program, that there is a requirement for emergency response teams. Has there been a need to increase investment here in the territory to ensure that the RCMP has full-time emergency response teams? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so some investments that have been made for the emergency response team, so two members were phased in 2024-2025; two additional members were phased in in 2025-2026; and two additional members will be brought in in 2026-2027, for a total of nine members in the unit. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. And can the Minister just explain -- I understand that the budget will pay for additional RCMP members where required. When the RCMP in the NWT needs more capital equipment or vehicles, that kind of thing, do they come to us to increase the money in the contract with the GNWT to pay for that capital, or how does that work? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, small items are purchased through their O and M budget within their operational budget, and larger items are APC, accommodations and program charge. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Minister -- oh sorry, Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the Minister happen to know what is the cutoff for what is a large item versus a small item? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Large items start at $150,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

I have no further questions on this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Is there any further questions?

I am going to go to the Member from Great Slave.

Oh sorry, I was just scratching my head, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I am going to continue on.

Justice, policing, $66,773,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to services to government on page 321, with information items found on page 323 and 324. Are there any questions?

I will go to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and sorry about earlier. I think I am in -- so when it comes to the access and privacy office in Justice, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has noted that he doesn't believe that that office is appropriately resourced so that it can reliably assist public bodies in meeting their legally required deadlines. Closure rates for ATIP requests improved from 65 -- or sorry, closure rates have improved -- sorry, have not improved. They've sort of decreased in terms of legislative timelines. And I am curious, does the department have plans to improve the ATIP request response time and how they anticipate to do that with no increasing resources to budget or staff as identified in the mains? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're currently going through a review, and that review is being evaluated in accordance with the government renewal initiative, and those results will be available in March and that will inform our decisions going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.