Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to follow up with questions to the Minister of Justice today in regard to my Member’s statement.
Concerns were brought to my office, phone calls, e-mails, in regard to some of the issues that we continue to face in our small communities. All you have to look at are some of these coroner’s reports of the alcohol and drug-related fatalities that we continue to see over the years every time a report is tabled in this House. If you look at where some of these alcohol and drug-related fatalities have taken place, and they’ve taken place in communities where there are no liquor establishments, there are no liquor stores, so the alcohol and drugs had to get there somehow.
My first question today will be: Has the Minister of Justice worked with any partners to develop stiffer penalties for those that are caught bootlegging in their communities? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Stiffer penalties were introduced a number of years ago. I think it was three or four years back for bootleggers in the Northwest Territories, stiffer fines and a possibility of incarceration as well.
We continue to work with the RCMP to ensure that we have the patrols, especially on the winter road, that we are trying to get the drug dealers and bootleggers off the streets and out of our communities. It’s really incumbent, especially in the smaller communities where folks in many cases know who the drug dealers are, they know who the bootleggers are, that they say something about it. I’d encourage the Member to keep promoting Crime Stoppers and the anonymous way that folks can call Crime Stoppers to report a crime, report bootleggers, report drug dealers and we’d make our best effort to ensure that our communities are free from the bootleggers and drug dealers. Thank you.
If stiffer penalties were introduced four years ago, we’re still continuing to see these issues in the communities. Obviously we need to address the situation but, as I said in my Member’s statement, government can’t do it alone. We need the support of our residents to speak up and speak out on this. In that case, some of our residents are afraid to say anything or be a witness or go to court to provide some of this information.
What is the government doing to provide that support to our residents who want to speak up and how are we going to keep them safe? Does he have a plan to assist those that want to get the drug dealers out of their communities? Thank you.
We need to, again, extol the reality that Crime Stoppers is an anonymous vehicle for folks to make a call. They can also text a complaint to Crime Stoppers. They won’t have to go to court. I served some time previously on the Crime Stoppers board here in the Northwest Territories. It is an anonymous program and it’s a program that works. Tips that are phoned in to Crime Stoppers will be investigated and I would encourage the Member, we can get him a poster for his office in Inuvik, a Crime Stoppers poster. I’d encourage all Members to keep supporting Crime Stoppers here in the Northwest Territories and the good work that program can do. People can make anonymous tips to the RCMP so they can be investigated and, again, in many cases, especially in the smaller communities, community members know who the drug dealers are and who the bootleggers are. Thank you.
The Minister referred to Crime Stoppers and it is an anonymous way to get the information to those that need it to see about some type of case or some type of file.
Does the Minister have statistics on the amount of times that Crime Stoppers has been used over this past fiscal year, the year previous? Does his department collect stats on Crime Stoppers so that we know, as a public, that it’s actually being used and it’s actually being utilized by people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
I don’t have those statistics with me today, but I would certainly go back to the department and get the statistics. Also, I’m curious myself to find out what marketing efforts are currently underway for the Crime Stoppers program around the Northwest Territories, especially in the smaller communities, and I’ll get that information for the Member and for the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. During our most recent community committee trip to the communities, we heard a lot of startling statistics and facts. Obviously, there has to be some kind of marketing strategy out there to empower our residents to speak up, and I look forward to seeing some of those details.
One of the other ways that we do it is a program called the Not Us! campaign. A lot of communities across the Northwest Territories use it. I just want to ask where the department is in terms of this campaign. How many years has it been running, how successful is it and specifically how many communities across the Northwest Territories access this Not Us! campaign that’s very effective? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, the Not Us! campaign has been very successful. The department is undergoing an evaluation of the program. We’ve got money out to a variety of communities all across the Northwest Territories.
Getting back to the bootlegging question, a lot of times communities want to focus on the drugs with the Not Us! campaign. But certainly, if the community wants to work with us, we can tailor a Not Us! program to bootlegging, as well, and incorporate that into the Not Us! program. We’re interested in hearing from communities if that’s what they want to see in a program.
In our estimation – and again, we’re doing an evaluation – we believe the program has been hugely successful in a community like Hay River and in other communities around the Northwest Territories, and we look to be doing more of that type of work at the grassroots levels, to try to root out bootlegging and drug dealing in our territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
