Brendan Bell

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s not my department. It is the federal government’s Crown prosecutor office. I don’t think we have seen a case to date, I don’t believe, where the Crown prosecutor’s office, for lack of resources, has had to stand down a prosecution. I can’t imagine that that would be the case. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member is absolutely correct in saying that when the RCMP is taxed and pressed because of the level of activity, they end up having to, first and foremost, respond when crimes are committed. They want to and are committed to doing proactive work, working with the community, working with the schools. We know that their presence alone in a community goes a long way toward acting as a deterrent, and that's something that is very important. So the RCMP is absolutely committed to that approach.

As a government, we've been responding to the RCMP's needs through...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to provide an update to Members on the implementation of the Protection Against Family Violence Act.

It's appropriate that we are joining people across the NWT in marking this week as Family Violence Awareness Week. It is a serious problem in all of our communities, in all types of families.

This law has been in force for just over six months. It allows victims of family violence to get protection quickly and easily over the phone. People can get an emergency protection order within a few hours from any community in the Northwest Territories, or they can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll admit that I’m not familiar with the “Made in B.C.” program. The concept sounds sound, and I can give the Member my assurance again that as we investigate an NWT manufacturing strategy, we’ll look at all these possibilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is something that’s come up in my recent consultations with chambers of commerce across the Northwest Territories. We had some discussion around such an initiative in Fort Smith, I believe. It is something we’d like to look at. We’ve talked internally about our arts and crafts and how to ensure there is a premium and additional margin for people producing arts and crafts in the Northwest Territories. We’ve talked about branding and tags that would have some reference to the artists who created the crafts. But with that and with that branding certainly will come “Made...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. April 1st of next year is our new budget year. At that point, funds will flow to the RCMP from the government. I know the Member is aware that we fund 70 percent of the operations of the RCMP; 30 percent comes from the federal government. The commitment is already there. We will be discussing that and have been discussing that through the business planning process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier, it is a priority of the government to work with the RCMP to come up with an approach for policing in our smaller communities. I think it is a reality that we will never have detachments in every community in the NWT -- some of the communities are too small -- but we are going to try to increase the number of detachments that we have. Having said that, it is very important that all of our communities have a police presence and have an adequate response by the RCMP. That is something that we are targeting. We have a working group of senior...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a very real problem and certainly a priority for our government and the RCMP. They’ve been listening to and hearing from our public for quite some time that not only do they need to go after the big fish or the high-level dealers, but deal with the street level. The RCMP intends to do that. We’ve been working with them. They have now unveiled a pilot project called the NWT Street Team. It will dedicate some officers to dealing with disrupting the supply of drugs in our communities, which is very important. So there will be a lot of work going into this over the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I understand where the Member is going with this and the nature of his question. The Member knows that it is the GNWT that is responsible for the administration of justice in this territory pursuant to our Northwest Territories Act and that, of course, is separate and apart from the prosecution function which, in the NWT, is the mandate of the federal Department of Justice.

In the past, when we’ve needed additional courtroom space for the administration of justice, we’ve gone out and found that. I am not sure that would be the case here. I doubt it. If it was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me start by saying I want to thank the Members in the House for the support they're showing the RCMP. Obviously, yesterday was a banner day for the Northwest Territories, for the RCMP, and will go a long way toward ensuring the safety of our residents.

In terms of standards of service, the RCMP, with the resources that we provide them, determine where manpower is most needed and scheduled accordingly. They are and have made one of their priorities working with us. One of the priorities we've talked about is staffing in small communities, especially those without...