Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes. When we heard that the CRA was planning to tax student grants to aboriginal people, the Minister of Finance and I jointly signed a letter pointing out that this would be counterproductive and encouraged them to reconsider their decision.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can certainly provide the Member with a listing of recent visits to communities. I will endeavour to ask the RCMP for the numbers of times that they have been into the schools for conversation. I expect that every time they are in a school that is one of the issues that they address. I think it is important to remember, as I said, that we have other initiatives. We have the Esteem Team that goes around to talk to kids about the issues like this and making healthy choices. This government isn’t taking just one approach; we are taking a number of approaches. But...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The formal program DARE isn’t offered in the smallest communities. The resources aren’t there to do it, but, when the RCMP visits schools, and they often visit schools on community visits, they take the opportunity to talk to young people about making the right choices. That is certainly something that comes up. It is not a formal program, but it is something that is discussed. The other thing is that the school curriculum itself includes dealing with making the right choices starting as early as kindergarten. Kindergarten and Grade 1 is entirely focused on just...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The $15,000 was in the budget for planning money for the renovations to the school. With the situation that’s happened this winter, we are likely going to have to find out for sure what’s happening with the piles before we determine at what rate we move forward with the renovation or replacement. So that $15,000 now will probably be used to study the situation more. If it proves that we need to spend some money for short-term repairs, then we will have to find the money to do that. At this point, that money was in the budget before the issue with the crack at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Corrections Canada paid the entire cost for their staff to come up and work with our staff in the facility here. They feel that it is a good training opportunity for their staff to see how another operation works, as well. We sought the assistance from an experienced person in B.C. on the human resources side, and the corrections department in B.C. only asked that we pay 25 percent of his salary for his work with us, as well as his transportation costs.

We have gone out to find economic ways to accomplish things. There was always an expectation that in the move to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although they have already been recognized, there are three constituents who I recognize that I’d like to make note of in the gallery today. Lyda Fuller, the executive director of the YWCA is with us.

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Mr. Fern Denault, the president to Federation Franco TeNOise.

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And Mr. Bill Graham. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To speak to the Member’s first allegation that people know that there are people who are dealing drugs and there is no action taking place, the RCMP can’t do it alone. They need to have witnesses, they need to have people tell them they are prepared to go to court and say this person is dealing drugs. I would encourage anyone who knows that sort of information and has it, to report to the RCMP that that will happen.

In terms of the allocation of traffic positions, the RCMP had started a pilot project in Hay River that put two positions into places that would have gone...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I attended the session earlier this week with Crack Busters and the article that the Member refers to was passed around there so, yes, I am aware of the article and I am aware of the issue in Yellowknife. It was quite a dramatic presentation that we received from Crack Busters.

Mr. Speaker, the enforcement of high level national or international drug targets is the responsibility of the federal policing, whereas street and mid-level targets fall to the province or territory for enforcement. So we work with our partners in the RCMP to provide them with the funding to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can reveal what is available. I know that, for instance, the FMBS has told us that we can’t reveal all of the numbers because, in many cases, they might indicate a specific person. I will take a look at what can be provided. I don’t think it should be difficult to get that information for the Member, because I believe that we have already provided a good part of this information, or as much as we can, to other Members in this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven’t ever said that we had cost overruns at the North Slave Correctional Centre. The department didn’t seek supplementary funding for the operations. There will have been some money that would have been allocated from one resource to another, whether it was permanent employees to overtime, or permanent employees to casual, it would have been handled through the normal process. The overrun that has been referred to isn’t something that we have characterized as an overrun. We haven’t come to this House and sought supplementary appropriation for it. The...