Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m honoured to speak to the recent commemoration of a police patrol that has been known as The Lost Patrol.

On the 21st day of December 2010, in memory of the 100th anniversary of this historic event, the community of Fort McPherson joined members of the RCMP and numerous leaders and officials to honour the members of The Lost Patrol. The day-long event included a memorial service, a wreath laying ceremony and a community feast.

As history informs us, from 1904 to 1921 there was an annual Royal Northwest Mounted Police tradition to make a trip from Dawson City, Yukon, to...

I would be more than willing to do that, too, with the Members. Mahsi.

The information that we have is that through ASA, as well that we gave money to schools for attendance projects and absenteeism is definitely before us. But we did provide additional funding to deal with absenteeism. Again, it’s part of the ASA as we move forward. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we do have three officers that are in training right now that have started the training at the depot. It is a Community Constable Program. Those are the areas that we explore with the RCMP ‘G’ Division and at the federal level. They finally listened. We are unique in the North so they gave us three positions. They will be graduating.

Mr. Speaker, this is an area of interest for us as well. We want to increase those numbers. We will do what we can, as the Department of Justice, to provide more information on this and possibly creating more similarities. The Member referred to the...

This is an area that we need to explore with the committee and the small and remote committee, a community committee. With the current funding that we have and also the review that’s being undertaken, phase I, phase II, that’s an opportunity for us to make some changes.

We clearly hear from Member Beaulieu that this is a concern for his constituents and others in the small communities. So, Mr. Chair, I’ll commit to looking at this with my department during the review process. Mahsi.

Yes, this would also cover that area as well.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This specific funding increase is more specifically for the Northwest Territories, but we have discussed this already with the Member and we are open to the idea of having southern tours with our exhibits. I am working closely with the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, as well, to see if this could be an option or something that we can explore. This is a working document that we are currently exploring between the parties and we will keep Members posted on this matter. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since the beginning of the 16th Assembly, there has been a goal that was set by the Justice department. We are following through with those goals to provide policing services. We may not have police officers in Tsiigehtchic, but we’ve hired an individual to be stationed out of Fort McPherson to look after Tsiigehtchic and provide more policing services. That individual is dedicated to Tsiigehtchic.

I have frequent meetings with the chief commanding officer in this respect. At every opportunity, Mr. Speaker, I have always pushed for more presence in the communities, because...

Within our depatment with the funding allocation, it is based on the application. We don’t have a specific criteria to say there’s a small community that’s in high need, because we have to deal with all the communities of the Northwest Territories, but this is an area that we can discuss further in the Early Childhood Development Framework that’s currently under review. We’re at the first phase and in the second phase what changes need to be made. So I will be addressing this with my department as to where it can fit in. So we can discuss it further. Mahsi.

I don’t know how else I can answer that. As I stated, yes, we support our campuses in Yellowknife and we’ll continue to support that.