Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to let the young people know the drug dealers and cartel do not care about them. With that in mind, the RCMP have been noted in the media saying they need a response unit. How can the GNWT support the RCMP to respond to the increase in drugs and crime with a response unit? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't quite know what I can say here. I know the budget is before the Committee of the Whole, so I don't want to speak too much about it. But I look forward to that budget passing and us getting our crime reduction unit up and running. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are communities in the NWT without consistent RCMP presence. Can the Minister explain what is being done to improve effective level of policing in NWT communities?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in the communities without RCMP present all the time, they have there are RCMP who are dedicated to travel to those communities at regular intervals. And with everything that has gone in the past few years, I guess four years now, the intervals might not have been as regular as we would have hoped. But at the Behchoko detachment, there are two officers who are dedicated to going into Gameti.
In addition, the RCMP had taken new approaches to combatting the drug trade. We've seen the increase in drugs over the last four or five years and because of that, the RCMP have sort of adjusted their tactics, and we have seen just since last year a big increase, 30 percent increase, in arrests, almost twice as many charges laid, over twice as many drugs seized and taken off the street, a number of dozens of handguns seized. So a lot of work is happening to prevent drugs from getting into communities, and also we have those proactive patrols into communities. And that being said, there is more work to be done. I have more initiatives that I want to bring forward, work with the federal government on them. So there's a lot more work to be done on this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, he's very right in all the stuff that he just said. But Gameti needs a detachment.
The RCMP have also noted publicly there is an inability to hold offenders accountable. What can the GNWT do to assist the RCMP to hold offenders accountable? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the big issues now is that over the last number of years, you know, in the last 2010s, there were changes to the Criminal Code, there were decisions from the Supreme Court, all of which have resulted in people who are arrested not being remanded into custody but granted bail. And they're arrested, they're back out later that day. And some of these offenders, you know, they are innocent until proven guilty, but then they're arrested again the next day or the next week, and they continue this pattern. And so we are seeing that the deterrent of not being remanded is not working. So what I have been doing, along with all of the other Ministers of Justice and many Premiers across Canada, have been lobbying the federal government for bail reform to ensure that we can better protect our communities. And later this year, I will be hosting all of the Ministers of Justice in Canada for one of our annual meetings, and this will be raised there as well. So there's continuous lobbying efforts across the country to address this, because this is not just a territorial issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is sad to see our young people, who were once full of life, now look defeated. We can just look in Yellowknife downtown. You can see that, you know. And even in the small community as well. So what can the GNWT do to make it difficult for drug dealers to operate in the territory? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, me and my spouse are from the territory and sometimes we'll run into someone who went down that path, and we can see that impact where, you know, our paths diverged and someone has gotten into that life and it is it's tough. It's tough on us to see. And so I know that when it's in your family, when it's someone close to you, when you see it every day in your community, it is difficult. So this is a serious issue that we are all feeling the effects of one way or another. And so there's a number of things that we're working on to try and address this. Looking at ways to shut down known drug houses. That's one way. We want to introduce the SCAN legislation, which would allow premises to be shut down as opposed to evicting the residents. So it's a different process, another tool for the RCMP. There is the civil Forfeiture Act, which I will be bringing forward, which will allow the government to retain proceeds of crime without a conviction in certain cases. So we are taking steps, both the government and the RCMP, to address these issues. Ultimately, I always say this, drug use is a public health issue. It's a tough battle to fight. I always look at the United States. They spend over a trillion dollars on the war against drugs, and they're not winning either. So, ultimately, we need to work on the demand side of things because if there's a demand, the supply will make it in. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
