Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement today, I have questions for the Minister of Justice. It has been 40 to 50 years since the community of Tsiigehtchic, at the time Arctic Red River, has last seen an RCMP.
Short of establishing a detachment in Tsiigehtchic, what programs exist that we can put in place to help address policing and community safety in Tsiigehtchic?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a dedicated officer in Fort McPherson that is intended to provide services to Tsiigehtchic. In the last sitting the Member did raise some concerns he had about some relationship between the community of Tsiigehtchic and the RCMP detachment in Fort McPherson, and I did have some staff and the commanding officer of “G” Division go out and visit Tsiigehtchic and try to work out some of the complications or difficulties that existed. It’s my understanding that they have actually worked out a few things, which I think is a step in the right direction.
The Member is right; if a detachment ever does go to Tsiigehtchic, it’s going to be a while, so we need to find some ways to help the people in that community today and tomorrow and until something like that were to happen. I have talked about the Community Safety Strategy that we’re piloting right now. I think this is a fantastic tool that the government will be able to sit down with the community and map out some of the issues that face them and come up with partners in other organizations who may be able to help them.
I would encourage the Member and I would encourage the community to get in touch with the department, and I can certainly help facilitate that so that we can look at the Community Safety Strategy and how to apply it in Tsiigehtchic for the benefit of the people in that community.
There is an Aboriginal community constable that has been successful in Hay River. These constables focus on community policing, crime prevention, activities frequently engaging youth, and support efforts of community justice committees. Can we see further progress in the Aboriginal Community Constable Policing Program in the Northwest Territories?
The answer is yes. The program is in a pilot phase. It had its original delivery in November 2010, and we were fortunate enough to get the one member here in the Northwest Territories in Hay River. The RCMP is doing a second intake, which is intended to happen this September. We have, I think, a number of applications that have come in for the second troop. We have two seats, and we have applications from Fort McPherson, Fort Simpson, Behchoko, Ulukhaktok, Sachs Harbour, Hay River, Inuvik, Gameti and Yellowknife. We know at least two of these individuals will be going forward for this program, and should they be successful for the program, they will be in detachments in the Northwest Territories providing those services.
The constable in Hay River does amazing work. He goes into the schools. He helps the full members. He’s about promotion, about education, as well as, to some degree, enforcement. If one of these positions will be in one of the smaller communities in the Northwest Territories in a detachment, they would be free to travel and provide services throughout the entire region. That could be a benefit to a community like Tsiigehtchic if we were fortunate enough to get somebody from the Mackenzie Delta in that program. It’s a great opportunity.
A number of years ago, I believe it was 10 to 15 years ago, we actually had somebody in the community who had a similar type of program that he’d taken and successfully passed. Will the department look at introducing special constables in the communities without police?
There has been some discussion around this and it’s something we’re certainly interested in having some conversation on, but there are some challenges there that we have to be aware of; for instance, insurance coverage and making sure that the individual is safe. We need to make sure that an individual is safe, and if he or she happens to be the only individual in a community providing policing, or is seen as the only person, they could be in harm’s way, so we need to make sure that we put in mechanisms to ensure that that is not the case, and we don’t have those questions answered at this point. That is something that we do need to look at. We also have some problems, as well, if the individual is not linked directly to the RCMP. We would have a problem with individual communities setting up police officers because we lack a police act here in the Northwest Territories. But there are opportunities that do exist.
We do have the Axillary Program, so individuals in communities can approach the RCMP about joining the auxiliary, and they would assist the RCMP. There’s no reason an individual from Tsiigehtchic couldn’t joint the axillary. Unfortunately, they would have to be working out of the Fort McPherson detachment, but it is an opportunity for information to flow both ways and to have individuals from Tsiigehtchic working collaboratively with the RCMP in Fort McPherson.
Once again, there could be some opportunities here, and I would like to work with the Member and discuss those further.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister: Will the department develop a police act?
We have been approached by some communities who have an interest. We’ve been approached by some organizations that have an interest. It’s not currently in our legislative agenda, but it is something that we are…(inaudible)…and looking at. I can’t say for sure whether or not we will actually see it come forward in the life of this Assembly, but I can commit that it is something that the department is looking at and will continue to look at. We do have in front of us, now that we have passed the motion on devolution, a pretty heavy legislative agenda. We’ve got a number of things outside of devolution we’re working on that have been priorities of committee and Cabinet, so we do have a number in front of us, but I will have the department do a bit of an analysis on the Police Act that I can provide to the Member and committee so that they understand what some of the challenges around that particular act are.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
