Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds like an invitation to the Member's constituency meeting, and so I'm happy to accept. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've got to say I'm a little surprised that the committee hasn't done that themselves. They have the full authority to make that offer or reach out to the RCMP, and I know that the commanding officer would be happy to appear and have those discussions. So I can pass along the message but what I recommend is that the committee actually write a letter and ask for that meeting. That way you start building a relationship between the committee and the commanding officer. If I act as a go-between, I'm just kind of passing notes back and forth. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I've spoken extensively about some of these tools. One of the main ones is the Civil Forfeiture Act. So right now if someone is suspected of committing a crime and they have some money on their person that is seized but they are not convicted of a crime, that money goes back to them even though, you know, everyone and his dog knows that it came from selling drugs. The Civil Forfeiture Act would allow the government to make an application to the court to retain those funds, and it would be done on a balance of probabilities as opposed to beyond a reasonable doubt. So there's one example of the types of legislation that can actually impact crime in the territory and organized crime and, frankly, the type of people who are selling the drugs and leading to a lot of the other issues. Scam legislation is the other one that I've spoken extensively about, and that is a way to help root out the drug houses. And a Trespass Act is another one that's probably of interest to the Members from Yellowknife. Many times the RCMP get a call, there's someone who's causing a disturbance in an apartment, but they have no authority to remove that person because we don't have a Trespass Act here. So those are the three primary pieces of legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the main things that I've been doing during this Assembly is lobbying my fellow MLAs to also make crime prevention and law enforcement a priority. We wound up with that in our priorities of this Assembly. Well, public safety, and so I'm happy to see that. And that will allow us to now move forward hopefully with some other initiatives. I meet regularly with the commanding officer of the RCMP. We discuss some of the challenges they're facing, potential solutions, and I'm always trying to find ways to provide additional support to the RCMP. We've added new RCMP members around the territory, including here in Yellowknife, every year since I have been the Minister of Justice. And, again, next year we will hope to be adding more officers. So I have been working. There's also legislation that I've been looking at to tackle some of the other issues we're facing of the drugs, the drug houses. The reason that we have this crime here is, in large part, because of the drug problem and so I want to be able to address the root of that. At its core of course, the drug problem is a health issue. It's a trauma issue. So we need to get at those reasons as well. So I am looking forward to the mandate development so that I can put into motion some of these issues -- or some of these potential solutions that I've been looking at over the past few years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Government of the Northwest Territories certainly wasn't caught off guard. It was well known that this funding was time limited, but this is not a Government of the Northwest Territories program. And so what this does is it highlights the need for closer collaboration with the NGOs and, you know, to my earlier point, for information sharing between the government and NGOs so that these types of situations don't sneak up on anybody. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, of course the Government of the Northwest Territories was providing funding for the operations of the Spruce Bough, and that was federal money that we were using and, of course, we always knew that that funding was going to run out and so, unfortunately, there wasn't a way to extend that funding. And so we're not at the point where that funding is going to expire. We have found some funding to allow the operation to extend for a few more months to buy us a bit more time. I believe that there are meetings happening maybe today or tomorrow with the most senior government officials and representatives from the Spruce Bough. So there are ways for us to work together. And that is actually the way to go forward. There are opportunities to unlock other pots of funding, find other funding from the federal government, maybe other sources, but we need to work together. We need to share information. And we need to have that same goal in mind and go in the same direction. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I don't want to preempt any mandate discussions that we need to have as a Cabinet, as a Caucus, but non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations, are going to be essential -- and they are essential right now, but to the future operation of the territory they will be essential. They have significant expertise, significant ability, and flexibility to do a lot of the work that we need to get done, and so as we develop that mandate they will be at the forefront of my mind. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, it is that treaty process, so I look forward to -- or the negotiations, so I look forward to including this and being able to in future Assemblies say yes, those issues have been settled. The issues that the Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh raised back in the 20th, we've dealt with those, we now have this -- the Akaitcho treaty and, you know, the Akaitcho people are exercising their inherent right to self-determination and self-government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, that's the work that is happening as we negotiate the Akaitcho treaty, and so I look forward to that progressing. Thank you.