R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The next steps would be ensuring that the information provided through the public engagement is analyzed. That will then be used to develop a legislative proposal and then the process that follows is that legislative proposal goes to standing committee, comes to Cabinet, the bill is drafted, and hopefully introduced in the winter sitting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And that's correct, between June 16th and July 25th of this year, the Department of Justice held public engagement. So the engagement consisted of an unanimous online survey that asked residents a number of questions related to missing persons legislation. The department also sent letters directly to Indigenous governments, mayors, the RCMP, and various other partners and stakeholders to invite them to participate in the survey. We received 81 responses. Most questions or most had a strong consensus. While many residents agreed that law enforcement should be able to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Department of Justice attends a number of different federal, territorial, and provincial meetings at various levels. So I've recently attended a meeting with the ministers for public safety and ministers of justice across Canada, and these are the types of issues that we discussed, and I will say what the issues that are being raised here are also being raised across Canada. So this is not a territory issue alone.

There is work in different jurisdictions to look at policing and how police services could be improved. There's been recent talk about Alberta moving...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and this speaks to the Member's last question as well. Most of the people who are in the correctional system in the Northwest Territories are there on remand, meaning they have not yet been sentenced.

In the 2010s, there were a number of Supreme Court of Canada cases that spoke to bail and, you know, what was needed in order to detain someone versus to release them. The Government of Canada, in 2019, codified some of that language or those decisions. And now the release of accused persons is the cardinal rule and detention is an exception. So the Criminal Code of Canada...

Thank you. So the new capital standards, which were approved in 2020, include provisions for child care spaces in a school facility if the spaces are warranted. Thank you.

Thank you so the work is being done at the site but I don't believe the project's been tendered yet. We're expecting it in fiscal year 20242025 to be completed. Thank you

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the Member mentioned two projects in this capital plan. Colville Lake School planning and Colville Lake School three portables. The three portables are in the process of being constructed. They will be on the winter road in the new year, and they will be set up and ready for school in the upcoming school year. The school itself is still in the planning phase. As the Members are aware, we have adjusted how we budget for capital and so we are only budgeting for the planning phase, which is what we actually expect to spend. We're not budgeting for, you know, builds that...

No. Thank you

Yes, I do.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the federal government does not fund schools. Bridges are one thing, schools are another. There's a division of power in Canada under the Constitution, and the federal government does not want to get into funding schools, which is generally provincial/territorial area. And so the Tlicho government informed us that they would like to take the lead on approaching the federal government to find funding. I never told them to go find it themselves.

And in terms of what would happen if there was a failure at the school, we don't wait until schools are, you know, about to...