Thank you, Mr. Chair. All I can indicate is that what came to the Department of Justice was funding for the six positions. As part of the budget process, Industry, Tourism and Investment reduced its -- reduced the allocation for two positions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Haener. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So does anybody know when ITI made the reductions? Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just for 2015-16, on 278 it shows that there are six full-time positions. That's presumably to April -- sorry, March 31st of 2016. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, I would suggest that Ms. Schofield could provide some information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Ms. Schofield.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When the decision was made to transfer the unit to the Department of Justice, an FMB submission was prepared to transfer the funds from ITI to the Department of Justice. In doing that, the reduction amounts were taken into consideration at the time of establishing those budgets. Then there are restatements that have to occur from one department to the other. In preparing the Main Estimates, the department has to present them as are approved by the Financial Management Board, and it resulted in the six positions coming over. The two were a part of the reduction that ITI had presented in their overall reduction exercise. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Schofield. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I still don't quite understand this. So does that mean ITI got to keep the money for those two positions? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, I understand that ITI was not able to keep that money. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Any further questions, Mr. O'Reilly?
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm just not sure about the presentation here. That might be something I'd have to take up in our review of the Main Estimates when we do this offline somewhere else, but I'm just not sure that this is -- I'm not sure it contains the information about the full staffing of OROGO in 2015-16. So I don't know how else to pursue it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Would you like to comment, Minister Sebert?
I don't think I have anything further, Mr. Chair.
Okay. Thank you, Minister Sebert. Any further questions, committee, to page 277? Okay. Office of the regulator of oil and gas operations, operations expenditure summary, total activity, $1,869,000. Are we agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. That brings us to page 280, policing services, operations expenditure summary, total activity, $44,729,000. Are we agreed? Questions? Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask the Minister if he could maybe provide an explanation in terms of I think it's been lately about three years since the bridge came into operation, and it's now, you know, the effect is that we have 24-hour traffic up and down the Mackenzie Highway that travels north and south. So I wanted to get an understanding of whether that has had a negative impact in terms of the resources of RCMP officers and detachments, either in Yellowknife, Behchoko, Fort Providence and Hay River, and whether there are designated resources for highway patrols plus at the same time ensuring the safety and well-being of residents in the communities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, I'm not aware in any change of activity, and if there is a change of activity, it hasn't been brought forward to us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you. I understand that with community residents RCMP local detachments are developing community policing plans. I just wanted to understand whether that will continue, especially in regard to smaller communities such as Kakisa that efforts have been made to ensure that their input will be sought and that at least their involvement -- at least lay the foundation of community policing plans. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are committed to having community policing plans with all communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli. Nothing further from Mr. Nadli. Mr. Beaulieu.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Nothing from Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few questions here, first starting with territorial policing services. This is, as I mentioned a number of times in the house, policing services in Tsiigehtchic, you know, it has improved over the year, the last few months here, but the community really would like to see some sort of station set up for policing in the community. I know a number of years ago we had a bylaw officer at the time take the Aboriginal policing, but since then, that is almost 20 years ago, Mr. Chair. You know, the community would really like to see a station set up in Tsiigehtchic. Would that be possible in the future? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, the provision of adequate policing services to all of our communities remains a priority for the Department of Justice and the GNWT, as well as the RCMP. So Justice continues to work with the RCMP to address the concerns of the smaller communities. The RCMP aims to improve services to Tsiigehtchic by increasing the number and length of patrols to the community. In 2015, Fort McPherson RCMP conducted 80 patrols to the community. Currently the NWT Housing Corp. is in the process of installing a two-bed portable unit, and that will allow the RCMP to use it for overnight accommodations for the members on patrol. So although there is no full-time RCMP detachment in that community, we do understand the concerns that the Member has expressed many times and do believe that this is the solution. There are increased numbers of patrols and we do believe that the community is adequately covered. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I've seen the improvements over the last few months, and I look forward to the duplex coming to the community as well. I know the department did plan to have officers there on the weekends, which is great. Which brings me to my next question, with the First Nations Policing. You know, how many people throughout the territory actually are involved under this topic here? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Mr. Chair, I understand that there are four persons involved. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. That's great. As I mentioned, you know, looking back over the years we had a good uptake. I believe it was in the '90s, somewhere around there. I've seen a number of officers, First Nations, that actually succeeded, you know, became officers, which is great, but we'd like to see more. I know a few years back there was a lot of advertising for this. I haven't seen very much lately, but, you know, what's the plan for this? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
I understand that Public Safety Canada is doing a review of the First Nations Policing Program and that they will be coming north for a conference, I'm told, in September. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's great news. I hope the committee is invited to that. Also, you know, as we may all know, for those that have been around for a bit, we hear stories of all the special constables that we had back, way back when the RCMP first started coming to the Territory. I think that was very successful; they worked hand in hand with the RCMP and without them, they wouldn't have found Albert Johnson, I don't think.
--- Laughter
That sort of program was very successful. It would be great to see something similar to that starting up again. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Mr. Chair, I think we're all cognizant of the great contribution of special constables. In the past, it did seem to me, and I arrived in the North as that program was kind of coming to an end, that there were, however, not many of our Aboriginal citizens who were actually full-fledged members of the RCMP. That started changing. So I think they found the program to be less important than it had been previously. The Member's point is well taken. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. There's nothing further from Mr. Blake. Do I have any more comments or questions on Policing Services? Seeing Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what steps is the government taking to draft the legislation for the ombudsman? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. I'm not sure if this is the correct section. I'll get the Minister to clarify. Minister.
Mr. Chair, of course, as all Members will know, the position of the ombudsman is one of the matters that we're going to be discussing at the summer caucus. So I expect that, after those discussions, we'll have a better idea about how this legislation would proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Would this topic be better discussed at maybe the department total or in a different section, Mr. Vanthuyne?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. According to the description on page 281 it indicates that "the legal division provides advice and representation to all GNWT departments and specified public agencies. GNWT bills and regulations are prepared by legislative drafters in legislation division." According to our mandate, we've indicated that Justice will be the oversight for this and so as much as I respect the Minister's reply, this is the public and open opportunity to ask these questions and I'm hopeful that the Minister can give a respective and meaningful reply. It's a fairly simple one. I'm just asking what steps the department is taking to draft the legislation on the Office of the Ombudsman. I respect that to some degree it's going to be talked about in the caucus meeting, however, I'm going to-- the same question will be asked.
So I leave it to the Minister to reply to that again and I'll throw out another question while we're at it: will the department be engaging the public to get meaningful input? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
