David Ramsay

We’d have to continue to work with the RCMP on making that determination. When I was recently in Gameti last week with Minister Lafferty, we discussed ways to enhance the level of service for the community of Gameti. We are very much interested in looking at ways the RCMP can continue to work with the leadership and community members across the Northwest Territories on community policing plans, identifying priorities in the community that are important to the leaders and the members in that community and carrying out the work of the RCMP in those communities where we can enhance services, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, this is a very concerning issue for everybody. People do want to find this lady. We have confidence in the RCMP that they will locate her. Of course, we know Yellowknife certainly is a very caring community and that people want to lend a hand and want to try to help out in any way possible in trying to locate her. It’s important that people go through the right channels with search and rescue teams, working under the search commander so they don’t inadvertently do any harm to the search.

I’d encourage people, if they do want to help out and want to get...

I’d be more than happy to go back to the department to get the Member an updated list of things we’ve done, what we’re doing to fill that position and when another competition to fill it permanently will take place. Thank you.

On April 1st, of course, we inherited the regulatory responsibility from the federal government. There are processes in place and we have to respect the processes and not fetter the regulator, not fetter the process that’s in place through legislation, legislation that we’ve inherited from the federal government.

Mr. Speaker, the Member makes it sound like we are not offering any services at North Slave Correctional Centre when it comes to spiritual and cultural health. We have elders that come to the facility that do sharing circles with the inmates, and we do that. We just don’t have, on staff, a permanent position. The coordinator position has been vacant, as I mentioned, since June, but that’s not to say that the centre isn’t still providing those types of opportunities for inmates that are at North Slave Correctional Centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We set up an office of the oil and gas regulator separate from the ITI department. It’s in a different building. It’s a stand-alone operation. I’ve delegated the day-to-day authority in most cases to the chief conservation officer, who is the executive director of our oil and gas regulator office, and we’ve set it up in a way that allows me to continue to do my job as Minister and also be the regulator. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker: I am pleased to report that earlier this month the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories launched the Wellness Court, supported by a new Department of Justice Wellness Court Program.

The Wellness Court is an alternative to conventional court that focuses on the offender rather than the offence. This court, and the supporting program, provides intensive supervision and targeted programing for chronic offenders who have mental health issues, addictions or cognitive challenges that contribute to their criminal behaviour. With this program we hope to help offenders develop a...

Mr. Speaker, seizing vehicles has occurred in the past when it comes to bootleggers. It continues to be an option where it is feasible. We also have a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Canada in respect of sharing the proceeds and disposition of forfeited property, the sharing of the amounts paid or recovered on account of certain fines and sharing of certain monies transferred to Canada by the governments of foreign states. We have an MOU in place with the Government of Canada that allows us to share some of those funds. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer is yes. We have had that concern come up previously. We are currently talking to other jurisdictions about their experience with this. Some of the preliminary discussions we’ve had with other jurisdictions indicate that we really need to be careful, because in a lot of cases the cost to store the assets seized sometimes ends up costing more than the assets themselves at the end of the day.

We have some discussions ongoing with other jurisdictions and I am glad that the Member brought the issue up again today. Thank you.

Thank you. We have our suite of business-related programs and services through ITI. In addition to that, we also have a new expenditure-based rebate program that we’ll be launching next month, November of this year. So we’re looking forward to seeing if that can be successful in helping to attract investment in the film industry here to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.