Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Justice in regard to some of the campaigns and the work they’re doing around how we’re kind of getting rid of the bootleggers and the drug dealers in the community. I guess my first question is the Not Us! campaign. I know it’s been successful in some of the communities in the past. Hay River and Yellowknife have had successful programs. Inuvik did have a very successful program at one time.
I just want to ask the Minister, how much funding is allocated for this program and is it being utilized in the Northwest Territories and has there been an increase at all over the years?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The total allotted to the Not Us! campaign by the Department of Justice is $100,000 per year. Communities can be provided with up to $10,000 to create and implement their own campaigns in their own communities, plus up to $5,000 annually as well.
We’ve had some success in a number of communities across the Northwest Territories, Fort Good Hope, Fort Liard, Fort Smith, Gameti, Hay River, Ndilo, Detah, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok, and also here in Yellowknife.
As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, we’ve got to create awareness and education on these programs and let our residents, especially the ones who have a certain interest in getting rid of our bootleggers and drug dealers, about such campaigns like this. I know I’ve also asked in the past in terms of prevention and promotion. I know we had one canine here, a canine unit in the Northwest Territories, and speaking to our Minister, that has been up to two.
I’m just wondering, I’m sure I asked questions about this before. I just want to get an update whether or not those canines on request would be able to get into the communities on a more regular basis and more or less kind of control and patrol our airports and our road systems.
That would be an operational decision of the RCMP, but what I can say is in the 12 years that I’ve been a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I don’t recall a year where we’ve seen more drug seizures, illegal alcohol going into communities. We’ve had just today another three seizures in small communities across the NWT, and the number of drug busts is really something. It really gets back to the great police work that the RCMP are providing for us here in the NWT, and also campaigns like the Not Us! campaign and also Crime Stoppers. At the end of the day, community members have just had enough of the bootleggers and the drug dealers in their community and want to do something about it.
The Minister did allude to Crime Stoppers as being one type of avenue. Can I ask the Minister if there are any other types of phone lines or tips hotlines that the Minister can reference that would allow residents of the Northwest Territories to give an anonymous phone call to get some of these, I guess, perpetrators in the community who do the bootlegging and sell drugs, if there’s any other type of hotline in the small communities that they can call to address such a situation? As we’ve mentioned, I think there are maybe 11 communities that don’t have RCMP officers at the moment.
The only way we are going to rid our communities of bootleggers and drug dealers is to let the authorities know. In the communities, folks can contact the local detachments. If they want anonymity they can look to Crime Stoppers, and we’ve advanced the Crime Stoppers board here. There’s a renewed effort to get that board up and active here in the Northwest Territories. We’re very encouraged by that. There are opportunities for folks to provide information to the RCMP whether it’s anonymously or through the local detachments.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
I know that in the Northwest Territories we do have communities that are accessible by road, by water, the Mackenzie River. I’m just wondering if the Minister would be working with the RCMP “G” Division to create higher awareness in those areas that are accessible by land. I know there have been concerns and issues brought forth, and as the Minister alluded to earlier, there have been a lot of seizures in the communities where a lot of booze and drugs have been taken, and we’ve seen that in the media. Would the Minister work with the RCMP “G” Division to create more public awareness around those communities that are accessible by land and water?
It’s very important that that message continue to get out. As the Minister of Justice, along with my counterparts from across the country, we’re deeply concerned with the number of deaths that are caused by the illegal drug fentanyl, and I think that’s something that we have to be acutely aware of as well. I know we’ve had some recent seizures of that drug here in Yellowknife. It’s very alarming.
We do have RCMP patrols, and one of the seizures that I spoke of earlier was near the community of Tulita where a jet boat was intercepted with a number of bottles of liquor on board. Also, road checks and the winter roads. We really increase our efforts when the winter road season is in, and check stops and ensuring that there is not illegal alcohol going into our smaller communities.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
