R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The manual needs to be updated as new there's new developments in best practices and case law and things like that. And so in the future, it's possible that the those roles will be done by other members of the other lawyers in the Legal Aid Commission. We do have a number of lawyers who specialize in family law who deal with children's law. There's opportunities for those staff to have professional development opportunities to learn more about children's law. I'm sure they get notifications in their inbox when there are significant cases that impact the world of...

Thank you. I would be more than happy to brief the committee. Thank you.

Thank you. So I understand that some of the recommendations were implemented, but the report was ten years ago and I don't have a good handle on what's happened in the last ten years in relation to that report. Thank you.

Thank you. So I think we would be the minor partner in that program. That would likely be something the department of health would lead if we're talking about mental health workers responding to crises. So I'm happy to work with the department of health examining things like that, and that's sort of the model that I was speaking of. But we would not be the lead department on something like that, depending on what this hypothetical model would look like. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is the commanding officer the former commanding officer is now gone but we have an acting commanding officer in that role, and I don't believe that the standing committee has met with that new commanding officer. So I recommend that they reach out and they request a meeting. I think that would be valuable to have these discussions, you know, with the people who would actually be, you know, working with the dogs. But to the Member's question, what can we do to disrupt the drug trade? Mr. Speaker, we're trying. The RCMP have a new strategy. I spoke about it...

Thank you. There won't be a document; there won't be a plan to be tabled in the House. We are developing an approach to working with the federal government, but we have too many strategies, too many frameworks that we spend a lot of time developing but not enough time implementing, and so we are implementing an approach to federal engagement. And we have the mandate done, hopefully the budget will be passed soon, and hopefully I'll be heading to Ottawa right after this so that we can begin those engagements. Thank you.

Thank you. So I believe that's in the next section so we can address that once we get there. Thank you.

With me I have Charlene Doolittle, deputy minister of the Department of Justice, and James Bancroft, director of corporate services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I can assure the Member that, you know, I'm the Minister of Justice and I'm from Hay River, so these are not questions that I have not asked before. I've had conversations with my colleagues and with the commanding officer about this because I you know, I have that same sense as anyone else. Like, who doesn't want a police dog in their community, especially when you're feeling the effects of drugs. So the having the K-9 based in Yellowknife allows it to be quickly more quickly deployed to locations where it needs, whether that is in the South Slave or elsewhere...

I'd like to hand it to the director.