Louis Sebert

These issues were examined at our retreat last August, and one of the important issues is to determine whether the Ombudsman has the power to initiate investigations. I understand, in the jurisdictions that do have an Ombudsman, the answer to that question is yes. I'm not sure that the Yukon Ombudsman has that power yet; I think they are seeking it. So it would seem that the trend, if I can put it that way, is towards the Ombudsman having that type of power. So when the legislative proposal comes forward, committee -- in fact, this Caucus -- will have to determine whether that's the route we...

Yes, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned earlier, the police, of course, do work with every community to assess their needs for policing. Certainly, I am willing to work with the RCMP and discuss the facts and figures that have been presented today. However, it may be, where there are few complaints and many patrols, that they were complaints of the most serious type. It does not mean that one place is over-policed and another place is under-policed. I am pretty confident in saying, the nature of the complaint is a partial determining factor in whether the RCMP will make a patrol or not. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are looking at that very issue as part of the ATIPP review. Obviously, it is not a large revenue item. I do not know what legislation says in other jurisdictions. Clearly, you do not want fees to be an impediment to reasonable requests for information. I imagine in past times there was concern that the government might be overwhelmed, or the ATIPP people might be overwhelmed by requests for information that were not terribly serious. Whether that is an issue or not, I do not know. It is an issue, obviously, that we are looking at, because we do not want to have people...

I haven't had any formal engagement with the public at large. I can advise, however, that around this table, the Cabinet is extremely experienced in this matter. We are very experienced and competent Ministers. We have discussed this. Our position simply is, as you have heard earlier, that the present manner of dealing with contact between Cabinet Ministers and industry is sufficient.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is actually in the section services to the public. I wonder if we could hold off the question until we reach that section. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

The police attendance in the 12 communities without detachment, of course, is based on the number of complaints or concerns that are directed to the RCMP. Again, I can ask the RCMP for that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Only to add that we do support Law Day, and clearly more needs to be done, particularly to encourage those students who are considering law as a career to follow that path. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. This government does maintain that position. We simply don't feel that is necessary as a small jurisdiction, and also there is, of course, a considerable amount of information regarding our contacts with those outside of the government that is provided. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This issue has come up before in speaking to people in the department about this very issue, whether we had the legislative capacity. Of course, legislation has to be in official languages, and so on. I asked: do we have enough people so that the lack of legislative drafters will be a problem? I am told no. So it is really a question of us getting the work to them. We believe they have the capacity to complete their tasks in a timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am not certain as to the exact number of days the police are there. The very nature of their patrols probably makes it better if the attendance is somewhat irregular, the point being that all communities do have police coverage. Thank you.