Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Justice Minister, for that answer. Mr. Speaker, this is truly an important issue to me and it is an important issue to the citizens in Yellowknife Centre and, to no surprise, I’m sure the whole Northwest Territories. So I should put the Justice Minister on notice that I will truly be relentlessly pursuing this issue for the next several months to ensure that we will be bringing forward a safe neighbourhood enforcement tool to our enforcement people. So, therefore, would the Minister be willing to look at this act, look at a way of adopting this type of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, this legislation will empower the citizens to take back their neighbourhoods by reporting problem residences and businesses to the RCMP or whatever enforcement agency. This type of legislation needs to become in practice now. This would allow authorities to take immediate action about this addiction plague. It is time to put our residents’ safety first, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Justice Minister at the appropriate time to see how we can move quickly on a discussion paper and possibly a bill to implement...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Commissioner stated to the committee: “Secrecy and closed doors lead to corruption and bad government no matter how well intentioned governments may be. It is far easier as a member of the public to accept the bona fides of government when they seem to be open and willing to accept responsibility, even for bad news, than if they appear to be secretive.”

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Commissioner recommends that a link be provided from the Legislative Assembly web site to the directory of ATIPP coordinators as it is currently difficult to find on the Justice and GNWT web sites. She further recommends that a paper directory be made available throughout the NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As in previous reports, the Commissioner recommends the GNWT take the initiative to raise information and privacy issues in devolution discussions and with aboriginal governments in order to encourage them to include some form of regulation within their governance structures. She states that although there are likely to be cultural differences on many information and privacy issues, all peoples have the right to an open government, which requires access to records, and the right to expect a certain level of privacy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the sixth year in a row, the Commissioner’s report speaks to the lack of information and privacy legislation for municipal governments.

The GNWT has identified concerns about the impact on day-to-day municipal operations and administration, costs, training and capacity as reasons why municipal information and privacy legislation cannot proceed at this time.

Municipal governments collect a substantial amount of personal information from residents and hold a great deal of information of interest to the public. The need for openness and transparency applies as much to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My apologies. I move that committee recommends that the Premier, Ministers and Financial Management Board make public statements supporting the principles of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and send clear messages to the public service about the importance of open and transparent government and the need to grant access to information unless there is a clear and compelling reason to do so.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in my Member’s statement today, I would be tabling documents regarding the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act and I have three documents. The first one would be described as a summary of the act. The second document I have to table is the actual act itself from Saskatchewan. The third one is a presentation the Saskatchewan Justice department gave to the Yukon government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m committed to finding innovative enforcement tools to make our communities and our neighbourhoods safer. We all know that crack houses unfairly can take a community area hostage by putting good citizens in jeopardy in horrible ways that I’ve talked about in my Member’s statement. I brought forward a copy of the Safe Communities and Neighbourhood Act to the Justice Minister and I will be tabling a copy later today. So my question to the Minister of Justice is, has he had a chance to look at the act and open up some type of dialogue between his...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have to tell anyone in this House today about the rising problem we have in our communities with drugs. We have an annual $22 million drug habit in the Northwest Territories and it's projected to get worse as we grow. In this House, we talk about the drug problems; we talk about the help for the drug addicts; we talk about catching the criminals who traffic the drugs, but we rarely talk about the citizens in our communities who are living next door to these drug dealers.

The local newspaper reported last year that in a Yellowknife neighbourhood, residents had to...