Louis Sebert

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government is committed to fulfilling the priorities developed by the 18th Assembly, including exploring options for the creation of the position of ombudsman. The Department of the Executive and the Department of Justice are working together to develop options for the establishment of this position. Thank you.

As I said previously, I have very little control over the day-to-day operations of the RCMP. I can, however, undertake to bring these concerns that have been mentioned in the Member's questions to the RCMP. Again, all of the communities in the Northwest Territories do have police protection. Not all of the protection is provided by an on-site detachment. In a review of this matter and looking at the financials, we were given to understand that, approximately, the cost of establishing new detachments would be $11 million, an unacceptably high cost, so the concerns are legitimate. I will bring...

Probably one of the points of having these patrols is to make them irregular so that those that perhaps would want to know when the police are coming won't know when the police are coming. I do understand, however, that there is a necessity of the police to go on regular patrols, which I understand they do. Whether those patrols are on a scheduled basis or not is really up to the RCMP. Although we do fund the RCMP to the tune of, I think, $45 million a year, 70 per cent of their budget, I do not have much control, or any control, and perhaps I shouldn't, over their day-to-day operations. I can...

Well, of course part of that will be determined by our discussions this summer, and of course, I will keep the House apprised. We will keep the House apprised as the legislation moves forward. We are hoping to look at a series of options in the summer, choose the best option, and that would be reflected in the legislation that we will bring to this House. Thank you.

I am pleased to do so, Mr. Speaker. There is work underway to develop materials to support a discussion by the caucus. We are having a summer meeting where this is one of the issues that is to be discussed, so we are exploring options. There are many different models in Canada. As the Member quite correctly pointed out, there are nine provinces, all of them except Prince Edward Island, I think, and the Yukon that have developed this position. However, the position is different in every jurisdiction. We need to look at options and decide which models we wish to follow. Thank you.

The Member does bring up legitimate concerns. We're not in a position, of course, to have detachments in every single community. Most of the communities do have detachments; those that don't are subject to regular patrols by the RCMP. I can bring the concerns of the Member, again, to the RCMP. I expect, when they go to the communities, they do check on the items that were mentioned in the question, so I will bring these concerns to the RCMP. I think they would be largely aware of them in any case, but I can't really direct them to change their policy. That's really up to them.

Mr. Speaker, I'm not entirely sure I understood the question. I know that the RCMP, apart from the places where they have detachments, do patrols into all of the communities where there are no detachments. I don't know if they'd be posted in advance. That would kind of defeat the purpose, I think, of having that sort of activity. I'm not being facetious; I am trying to answer the question. I'm not entirely sure that I entirely understood the question, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. There was a draft proposal which was prepared in the last Assembly which I had the opportunity of reading, but I believe that the first step would be for us all to decide which model we wish to follow, and at that point, legislation will be brought forward.

As I mentioned earlier, there are many different models. There is the Quebec model for one, which is a very extensive, expensive model, and others that are more limited. The cost has been found to be between perhaps half a million dollars at the minimum and multi-millions of dollars at the maximum. It's to be determined whether we will...

The prime objective of the Power Corporation is to supply customers with safe, reliable, cost-effective energy. As part of this, we are rolling out other projects that will assist in us arriving at that end. I will say, though, at least initially, that often solar projects are quite expensive and do not result in an immediate reduction in the amounts that people see at the end-of-month bills. But there are other benefits to solar. It reduces the emissions that go into the atmosphere, so again, the Power Corporation is intent on delivering power, whether it's diesel or other means, at the...

Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to attend with the Premier, several weeks ago, and other staff from the Power Corporation and government officials, at the opening of the solar battery diesel plant, grand opening, official opening, in Colville Lake. There is a Solar Energy Strategy that the Government rolled out in 2012, I believe, and so we are committed to looking at other projects. It appears that there will always be a need, obviously, in view of where we live to have a combination of supplies, if I can put it that way, of perhaps diesel, or including diesel, but we wish to, in particular...