R.J. Simpson

Thank you. And so earlier I stated there was no increase or decrease. There is a $5,000 increase to this line item due to our support for NGOs or organizations who are facing inflationary pressures. The one agreement that will be expiring is for $12,000, and so that $12,000 plus the $5,000 that $17,000 that will be available for an organization to apply for to provide some of these programming. I know it's not a lot, but we are trying to get every penny out the door.

So the program used to be when this fund funded A New Day program, that was exclusive to Yellowknife essentially. So we have...

Thank you. I believe the full staff complement is eight. I believe there are five court workers, and those are I believe those are fully staffed. Or sorry, court officers. I've used the incorrect term for a couple of our positions. So I can hand it to Mr. Bancroft for some more detail on that. Thanks.

Thank you. I couldn't get away with it, hey? It's services to government.

Thank you. And members of the public can always call the local detachment and provide information, a tip. If they are concerned about that, they can also call Crime Stoppers, and that can be anonymous as well. Thank you.

Thank you. So right now there are programs in Inuvik, Behchoko, Sambaa K'e, Fort Simpson, and Fort Providence. The programs the contribution agreements for the programs in Sambaa K'e and Fort Providence expire at the end of this fiscal year, and the other ones expire in 2024. There is not a change to this budget but there's no decrease to the budget either, don't intend to roll this back at all. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll hand it to Mr. Bancroft.

Thank you. So we have the chief coroner. We have a deputy coroner. And then we have 18 regional coroners. Thank you.

Thank you. So we have an additional position that is the investigations and standards office. So the director of investigations and standards I suppose, and that is a position that was created under the act. It's my understanding that although there was a collaborative effort, and Justice worked with the Regular Members to make improvements and to create new processes in the bill, there was no additional money added at that time. So we've been doing what we can internally, but we do have the one new position, and I believe the budget for that was $243,000. Thank you.

Thank you. So I have met with the commanding officer on this as well as other detachment commanders across the territory. And I know that they are focusing on it. They are seeing these increases. And this is what they do, they enforce the law. And when it comes to drugs, they see the negative impacts; they know that where we are now is in a better position than where we could be in the future and they're doing their best to try and stop us from getting to that. So there has been an increased focus. As well I've been working with the department to try and figure out what we can do on our side...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So like I said, we are always looking for more federal funds and we're continuing to do that. If we had a bigger budget, we could create those positions but the fact is that we have the budget we have and we have to work within it. And we have been able to do that and still expand the program. So until we can secure some significant federal funds, we'll continue to work in that manner. Thank you.