Thank you, Ms. Bolstad. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is all I have, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to community policing, I am looking at the business plan, and I am trying to understand how the department responds to issues in the smaller communities that do not have detachments. Can the Minister explain how many trips are supposed to occur in the communities, starting with Jean Marie? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of course, there are no communities that do not have policing supplied to them. It is just a question of whether they have an actual detachment located in the community. I understand there are 12 communities that don't have an actual detachment. That does not mean they are not policed. The police will often have patrols in those communities. I also know that all the communities in the Northwest Territories do have agreements, policing agreements, with the RCMP. The RCMP will know the concerns of those small communities and enter into agreements to assist. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand that we have an agreement with them, and they are supposed to patrol. With Gameti and Whati, presently, they have detachments, and my understanding is there are part-time detachments where the members are supposed to be three out of eight days. Is this being followed by the department? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert.
I am not certain as to the exact number of days the police are there. The very nature of their patrols probably makes it better if the attendance is somewhat irregular, the point being that all communities do have police coverage. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the Minister or does the department know how many times the RCMP are going into the communities that do not have RCMP, including the part-time detachment of Gameti and Whati, or Gameti and Wrigley, more specifically Wrigley? Are you able to tell us how many times the patrols are in these communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert, to the question of routine checks as per the agreement?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not think we have that information in front of us. We can ask the RCMP. I do not think they will give us the dates or anything, because that might indicate a pattern which probably would not be the best thing to have. I can undertake to request that information of the RCMP. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for the answer. I am not asking for dates. I am asking how many times they have been in these communities. I am looking at your business plans and using the numbers for 2016. Wrigley had 76 calls for services and only two patrols. I am really trying to understand what this part-time detachment means to this community. Can the Minister explain what this part-time detachment means, and how regular are these services to the people so they get better service? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert.
The police attendance in the 12 communities without detachment, of course, is based on the number of complaints or concerns that are directed to the RCMP. Again, I can ask the RCMP for that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just looking at numbers in the communities, and I see 13. Maybe that is, the lowest is a concerning one. I am not too sure. Looking at these numbers, Wrigley's has the fourth highest call for services, and we only have two patrols. I'm looking at Jean Marie, and they have had 32 calls for services and 19 patrols. Jean Marie is actually on a road system. Wrigley's has to wait on ferries and that. My concern is: how is Wrigley being serviced with only two patrols there, if that is what the numbers are correct according to the business plan? Can the Minister confirm that he will work with the RCMP to get better service, or increased service? I shouldn't say "better service," but increased service for that community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, we are always working with the RCMP to provide better service. It may be that the nature of the complaints is different. Perhaps the complaints in one community were very serious, and the ones in the other community were less serious. I do know that the number of patrols to the smaller communities is determined not necessarily by the size of the community but probably the number and nature of the complaints. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I am looking at a community that is in my region, called for service seven times, six patrols. I have another community in another riding; they had five calls and had 23 patrols that were outside there. Again, my big concern, to get the presence in the community so that the people understand the service and have better service. Will the Minister work with the detachment to get better service into the smaller communities, specifically the ones that have part-time detachments? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert.
Yes, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned earlier, the police, of course, do work with every community to assess their needs for policing. Certainly, I am willing to work with the RCMP and discuss the facts and figures that have been presented today. However, it may be, where there are few complaints and many patrols, that they were complaints of the most serious type. It does not mean that one place is over-policed and another place is under-policed. I am pretty confident in saying, the nature of the complaint is a partial determining factor in whether the RCMP will make a patrol or not. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for his answer. Will the Minister make a commitment, or check with the detachments, that the budgets are being allocated, or actually fully utilized? In other words, going into Wrigley, they have $100,000; are they actually utilizing this funding to provide service? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, I am not certain that we drill down to that level of numbers in dealing with the RCMP. To a large extent, we rely on their good sense in allocating funds. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for his answer. Unfortunately, if we are not utilizing the services and utilizing the funding, that means the community is not getting the services required. My biggest concern is that the detachment in Fort Simpson, where these people are located and positioned, their relief for these people who are on holidays and training, that has an impact on the smaller communities. If we are not spending the money in there, it says something. When I say public service, it is not about just working there and dealing with complaints, but the most important part is to educate people about the importance of the RCMP, working together, so it becomes a friendly environment and people become better citizens as we move forward.
Again, can the Minister make a commitment -- and this will be my last question, I guess, because I only have 15 seconds. Can the Minister make a commitment to work with the detachments to see what the budgets are, and share with us as committee, to see what is happening in these communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert, the last question.
Mr. Chair, we do not generally deal with the operations on the detachment-by-detachment level. There has to be a fair amount of operational flexibility with the RCMP because events may occur that require a lot of resources. I do not think any of the money is being wasted. I could ask the commanding officer to attend before committee, if I receive that request. Of course, it would be up to him. Again, we do not have that sort of breakdown by detachment-by-detachment. I do believe that the operational flexibility I spoke of is required so that the police can carry out their duties, and I would like to think that money is not being wasted in any way. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Any further questions? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On this point, just to get some further clarification on on-calls versus patrols, the Minister referred earlier that it seemed like the way in which the RCMP was making coverage of certain communities was on an on-call basis. Can the department distinguish for us what the difference is for calls for service versus patrols, just so we have some understanding of that first? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
I have to say that all of the police activity, Mr. Chair, is not driven by the number of calls. I think the police do a certain number of patrols in the community, just somewhat irregularly for reasons that are pretty obvious, but not necessarily in response to a call. It is a mixture, really. Obviously, they will respond to calls, have to determine the seriousness and how to respond, but my understanding is they make patrols to the communities, even if there is not a specific event or complaint. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is the point that the previous speaker was alluding to, is that we have communities where we will see the callouts be significantly lower than the patrols. If we are to use a community like Detah as an example, it is about a 1:4 difference, it seems like, the callouts versus the patrols, and the patrols are significantly higher than the callouts.
Then, when you look at a community like that of Wrigley, that is supposed to have what is called part-time detachment coverage, you will see calls for service are significantly higher than that of the patrols. There just seems to be this inconsistent approach that the RCMP takes in whether they respond to something reactively or whether they are doing patrols for crime prevention. Would this be mostly because of a community's policing plan? I can't foresee any community not asking for regular types of patrols.
How one community got two patrols in an entire year is difficult to understand, yet they have a number of callouts. That means there is something going on in terms of the crime activity, but they don't seem to be getting the preventative measure type of patrols. Is there some comment maybe that the department could provide us with how that works, or is that because of community policing plans that have said they don't prefer patrols or what have you? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
Mr. Chair, I am not aware of the policing agreements with every community. I imagine they have a certain amount of similarity to them. Again, there may be a bit of a disconnect between the number of calls and the number of patrols, but that may be the nature of the calls. Again, the police always have to make a determination of whether a call merits a patrol apart from their regular patrols. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The comment the Minister made is interesting to me. Are there actually policing agreements with communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
They are actually called community policing plans between the RCMP and the individual communities.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the informative pieces of information that I received on a regular basis as a former Yellowknife city councillor was a monthly report from the RCMP detachment. Is this something that takes place in the other communities throughout the territory as well? Do they receive monthly policing reports? Do they know what the actual callouts are for, other than just the number of callouts? Do they know if they are for break and entry, etc., or what different crimes they might be for? That would be good information to know. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can advise from my own experience being on town council in Fort Smith that we did receive monthly reports from the RCMP, which involved, I believe, the number of people in custody, the general nature of the charges, whether they were traffic-related or crime-related. I can't speak for every community, but certainly in the larger communities I am quite sure there is that information provided to council. I would like to think that it would be provided to all of the communities, but I am not absolutely certain of that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
