Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realized after I sat down, all happy after my exchange of questions with the Minister of Justice, that I still really didn’t know the answer to my question, so let me ask it more directly. Is there any impediment to the Northwest Territories creating another level of police force, police officer in the Northwest Territories, to work in cooperation but outside of the rules imposed by the national RCMP but work in cooperation with the RCMP? Is there any impediment to us doing that as a territory?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe there is. However, it would certainly cost a great deal of money to look at providing that level of service across the Northwest Territories.
I’m not suggesting it should be available, that level of policing should be available across the Northwest Territories. I’m suggesting it should be in the communities where there is no police presence at this time and where the RCMP cannot operate with a single member detachment and all those other rules that go along with the RCMP. I’m not suggesting all communities; I’m suggesting only those communities that do not have a police presence now.
Could we create a made-in-the-North for-the-North group of officers to serve in those communities?
Again, I would say yes, there’s a chance that that could happen. Again, we have to be creative. We have to be looking at any way and means to increase the safety of our communities across the Northwest Territories, and the Member brings up a good suggestion. We are doing everything we can by working with the RCMP to ensure that our communities are safe. We’ve got policing plans in place today. We’ve got opportunities, as I mentioned, in communities like Tsiigehtchic, and perhaps Gameti and Wrigley, on getting officers to overnight in those communities. We’re looking at safe houses. We’re looking at other opportunities to continue to work with community leaders on providing safe communities here in the Northwest Territories. I thank the Member for her suggestion.
I do appreciate the fact that RCMP are willing to go into the communities on visits and stay overnight in those communities, but I am talking about resident police officers in the community that are there, that know the community, that may even be from the community, that are Northerners.
Could the Minister tell me if there has ever been a discussion with the RCMP on such an idea, and what kind of efficiencies we could realize by trying to create such a group of police officers, perhaps with the cooperation of the RCMP? There is no sense in reinventing everything. Maybe they would be willing to cooperate with us on their training services and there would obviously have to be some very strong communication between these two levels of policing services. I’d like to ask the Minister, has that ever been canvassed with the RCMP?
At almost every opportunity the issue of community policing, First Nations policing, Aboriginal Constable Program is raised with the RCMP. That is something that our government is very much interested in seeing advanced.
As I mentioned to the Member in my first set of responses to her, there was no uptake in the last Aboriginal Constable Program that was set to go to Depot in the fall of 2013. I believe we had one individual from the Northwest Territories that was set to take the training. We have two spots reserved for us when that program does get off the ground in 2015. The individual that had applied is still interested, I understand, so we will have two there.
We also, again, have to continue to pursue the First Nations policing with the Yukon and Nunavut and see where we can get with the federal government on funding under that initiative. I think that the idea that the Member has certainly has some merit, and if we can get some funding through that program, that is something that we could take a look at.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to follow up on the assertion from the Minister again, that there was very little interest or uptake in the Aboriginal Constable Program, which was an opportunity.
I’d like to ask who led the effort to recruit and generate interest in these positions. Was it our government or was it the RCMP?
I’ve been the Minister of Justice for four months. That’s something that goes before my starting in this position as Minister of Justice. That’s something that I certainly can find out for the Member and I will get that information to her.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
