R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Later this month there is a short phone or video meeting with the Council of Leaders just to prepare for the meeting in June. It's mid-June, I believe. I will report back to the Member directly on the results of any conversations. I don't want to necessarily commit to putting people's names to those conversations unless those people want to have their names shared with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a Member of the Council of Leaders, I would say that the resources of the GNWT are better spent elsewhere at this time given all of the challenges that we have. That being said, I'll start having some informal conversations with some of the other leaders at the table and go from there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe it was in the last fiscal year there were two positions added to the detachment in Behchoko. Last year -- this fiscal year I think there was one in Whati, and next year there's another one. And so there's a number of positions going into the Tlicho region. What we -- the way we work with the RCMP is that they identify the pressures in different communities, and we work with them to resource them as necessary. And so there are pressures around the territory, but we have recognized those in the Tlicho region and responded.

The RCMP have also implemented their new...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member is correct, I have announced that we are looking to introduce three pieces of legislation to help with public safety. So the first is the SCAN legislation, and that stands for safer communities and neighbourhoods. And that's the type of legislation that allows for buildings to be temporarily shut down and if there's residents there, those residents would have to find somewhere else to go if those buildings are causing harm to a community and that can be proven on a balance of probabilities in court. So it bypasses the Residential Tenancies Act and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I also think the NGOs in Yellowknife are well placed to reach out to the Indigenous governments. We can provide phone numbers, contact information, and they can make those connections themselves. What is needed is alignment between the NGOs and between the Indigenous governments so that they can actually work together. And so once we have all of these discussions, there might be opportunities to put together an Indigenous government with an NGO as in try to get them together. But it's really not up to the GNWT to do that type of work. I think the NGOs are more than...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The camp did not reach its maximum capacity continuously. I don't believe it reached its maximum capacity ever, actually. But it did not prevent people who needed a home from having a home because there was still -- I know the Member asked about a home but there was shelter space available in Yellowknife, and so there was always shelter space available even for those who could not go to the on-the-land camp. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Minister of Justice, I provide the RCMP with their policing priorities. Priority number 1 is to address the impacts of drugs and alcohol on our communities, so illegal drugs and bootlegging on our communities. That's my first priority that I've given to the RCMP. So that's step one.

In this fiscal year, we funded a new crime reduction unit to be made up of RCMP officers who are going to focus on organized crime and drugs. They'll have the time and the specialized training to undertake investigations and hopefully -- well, not hopefully. They're going to make a dent in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're lucky to have a number of distinguished guests with us today in the gallery, and so I would like to recognize them. I'd like to recognize President Marc Whitford from the North Slave Metis Alliance, of course; Major Tony Brushett from the Salvation Army, a strong partner with the Government of the Northwest Territories; as well as from the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association, executive director Matthew Miller who was the president in the last term, and I worked with him closely, and current president, Ms. Rita Mueller, my former deputy minister and a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we are expecting the report back from the camp operator in the coming weeks, so we'll have a look at that and see what it says.

I will note that a number of the participants at the camp appreciated that it was a sober camp, and that helped them in their journey. So I think that's something that we need to consider, is that there are spaces if you -- you know, you aren't sober, but there really wasn't a lot available if you were, and so this offered people that opportunity. There is going to be a working -- there's going to be meetings coming up in March with the city...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a decision of the federal government, and the federal government has said everything's on the table. Thank you.