Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The crime rate in the Northwest Territories is eight times higher than the national average. The rate of violent crime in our jurisdiction is the second highest in the country. That’s not all, Mr. Speaker. Bullying, belittling and name calling are commonplace in our communities.

The situation is compounded by a familiar list of social factors: alcoholism and drug abuse, poverty, low educational attainment and the multigenerational effects of residential schools.

I believe life in our small communities would really improve if we had more homegrown police officers. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Government Operations wishes to report that it is reviewing Bill 37, Financial Administration Act, and would like to inform the House that additional time is required to complete the committee review of Bill 37.

I’d like to thank the Minister for his reply. He indicated at the outset that there have been two applicants, and I think the Department of Justice could try to assist communities to increase those numbers.

Will the Minister consider introducing a community-based mentoring project beginning with a handful of small communities? Will the Minister work with the RCMP, other policing officers and community elders to make this happen? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today we’re talking about bullying. Bullying is most prevalent in the young people population, but it’s all over. My question is to the Minister of Justice. It’s essential that we have peace officers, like one of the symbols that we have here in the North and across Canada are RCMP officers.

To the Minister’s knowledge, have any young people from the NWT participated in the RCMP’s Aboriginal Pre-Cadet Training Program? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise, too, in support of the bill. I’d like to congratulate the people from the Sahtu for this long haul. I’ve been in a leadership position and it’s not an easy task. But what’s very inspiring is having your elders there with you along the way and it’s very important that you carry along with you your elders, their involvement, at the same time, their wisdom, their patience, and at the same time showing us the humility in terms of not knowing everything, but trying to learn from them as well. So it’s a very important path that you’ve taken. I congratulate you. It’s a...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Education is about going to school, learning… [Translation] …we learn from the school. We sit around the table and listen and learn. Also, we work in the bush, as well, to educate ourselves in our culture and…[Translation ends]

[English not provided]

…our extended families and the knowledge is passed on through... [Translation] We learn from our culture. We learn from our legends and this is how our culture is passed on. This is how we learn as Dene people. [Translation ends]

…sometimes it is a detriment to the society of the NWT. Sometimes we are reminded of the reality that...

[Translation] Our elders say we will go into the future holding a pen. This is how the old people are saying we will benefit from the education [Translation ends]

…and together at work to agree that as a goal we need to act upon this and make it a priority to ensure that we improve the lives of our people, all of our people in the NWT. One goal that we should all aspire to work towards is our high school graduation rates. Let’s agree that by 2016 we will graduate with at least 2,000 students by that time. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I too rise in support of this motion. The hospital emergency situation in Stanton, I think it’s a paramount matter that needs to be addressed and is needed. Security and safety is essential and should be established in the hospital. Of course, there are two more likely spots in the hospital, the emergency ward and the psychiatric ward that need to at least have immediate security systems in place.

Of course, we’re trying to learn from the incident that happened in 2011 regarding Allisdair Leishman and we need to make things right to ensure that there is a level of safety at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] About 400 years ago there was now here in the Northwest Territories our communities, we liked to name our communities using our Dene language. I feel that would strongly support the culture and also the people that have access to schools and, therefore, the history. If they have to change the names to a Dene name they would have to go through MACA.

In the past there were other communities like Tuktoyaktuk in the 1950s. When they changed their name in 1993, Fort Franklin, they reverted back to their Dene name of Deline. Tsiigehtchic also changed their name...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have some opening comments. I was very interested, of course, in the progress towards updating the Forest Management Act and with the particular interest in terms of the non-timber forest products. I understand that’s still in the works at some point. Hopefully, we’ll see some progress towards that end.

Why I remain very interested in that is because, of course, the non-timber forest products pertain to the mushrooms in terms of how it is that this government will be responsible and manage them and ensure they’re sustainable at the same time. There are regulations...