Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this point we are just in the process of beginning to start to get the statistics on the activities of the community justice committees. We have only recently been able to provide all communities with that $20,000 in extra funding for them to hire a part-time coordinator. Many of them didn’t have the resources before or even the ability to collect the statistics of what they were doing themselves. That was one of the reasons for looking at this as a needed investment.

Now the committees have someone or should have someone available who can start to collect some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raised this issue with me some time ago and in taking a look at the Condominium Act, I had to agree that it looked like there might be some area that we were not looking at. So I’ve asked the department to compare our Condominium Act with those acts across Canada. I think the area that we might be somewhat lacking in is whether or not the reserve fund is considered to be adequate. That’s the area that I think they’re going to have to examine; whether or not we should insist, like Alberta does, that there be an independent review by an auditor as to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today I have the deputy minister, Mr. Don Cooper; and, the director of finance, Ms. Kim Schofield.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to follow the guidelines set out by the federal government for the program. I can tell Members we are nowhere near satisfying the demand. I believe this year we had a waiting list of people who did not get any funding through the program because there was not enough money in the program to address all of the requests. The other problem with the program is it will not provide funding to Metis people. That’s something I have consistently written to the federal Minister and demanded that they reconsider their approach to this program, but I have not been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I have spoken to Chief Superintendent Summerfield about the issue of drugs in the Northwest Territories. Much of our discussion in the past year has been about working with the federal government to make sure that all of the federal positions are filled in the Northwest Territories. The Government of the Northwest Territories is responding to the resourcing request that has been put in by the RCMP and some of that is in this year’s budget. I am hoping to follow through and complete the numbers that they have requested in next year’s budget. I have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the best of my knowledge the operations in Hay River were all run effectively and very close to on budget, if not under budget. Thank you very much.

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...