Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister of Justice be willing to explore a formalized relationship with an external oversight agency of the NWT's RCMP, an arrangement such as the one between the Yukon and the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the department has looked at this previously. It was a few years ago, maybe around 2015 I believe. So currently there is an oversight body in the territory, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. They review investigations into RCMP conduct. As the Member stated earlier, though, those investigations are conducted by other police bodies, whether it's the RCMP or perhaps a municipal police force. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is something different. It's not headed by a police force. It's -- there's a civilian essentially at the head of that, and they work with police forces as well as independent investigators to actually look into the RCMP. And this is only for very serious incidents, not every complaint that might be brought forward.
So we have looked into this previously. The cost is quite a bit. There would be -- from the last discussions we had, the requirement was to have a couple investigators on staff and then as well as a travel budget for them to travel around. So we're looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars for the, you know, zero or one or two cases a year, or three or four or five cases even a year that they might deal with, but the caseload and the cost they don't really align.
What we are doing is making investments in body-worn cameras, and those are beginning to roll out this month starting, I believe, here in Yellowknife and rolling out across the NWT over the next -- over the coming year. And so hopefully that will provide some comfort to individuals as well who want to ensure that the RCMP are held accountable. And of course that's what we all want. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has assured me that increasing safety of Indigenous women and girls is a priority for him and the commanding officer of G-division. Can the Minister speak to how all parties are moving forward with fulsomely addressing the concerns of the Yellowknife Women's Society report in a meaningful fashion? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And that is a priority. In fact, as Minister of Justice I establish the RCMP policing priorities. We go out for input from Indigenous governments and other stakeholders and from that we craft a limited number of policing priorities. One of those is to provide policing services that are responsive to the needs of Indigenous women, girls, families, and children experiencing family intimate partner violence and sexualized violence in the NWT. And there's only four priorities, and so that is one of the four priorities. So it is a priority for myself, and we've made it a priority for the RCMP as well.
The RCMP have been active participants in meetings to address housing and homelessness which have been occurring more frequently here in Yellowknife. They've offered to work with the service providers to improve their working relationship and better understand the needs of the clients. And that's in line with what we are doing as a government, trying to integrate our services and work more closely and more respectfully with the NGOs as well. And the RCMP, they did have a follow-up meeting with the Yellowknife Women's Society. And so the work is ongoing and will continue to be ongoing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm specifically interested in the women's society's recommendation that asks for resourcing for Street Outreach here in Yellowknife to be a 24/7 team alleviating pressures on the RCMP. Can the Minister commit for his department to seek funding pots for services across the GNWT, departments across the GNWT that might address this crucial need? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And there's no doubt that the Street Outreach program has been successful. I've spoken with the RCMP about it, and there's definitely a noticeable decrease in the types of calls that they have to respond to because of that team, and so I'm very supportive of that. Right now, the program is undergoing a review by the city of Yellowknife and so once we see the outcomes of that review, we'll have a better idea of what we actually need to do, what type of support they might need from the GNWT, and we can look at what types of funding that could be accessed at that point. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. He'll be happy to know that review is out, and I look forward to hearing more from him.
There are a suite of recommendations in the women's society report that discuss comprehensive review of policing in the NWT. In particular, there's a request for consideration of establishing a Northwest Territories police council with Indigenous co-governance. Can the Minister say as to whether or not he's discussing this recommendation with the Council of Leaders? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member's correct, the review is out. We are reviewing the review, so that's the work that's happening now.
The Council of Leaders, this is not a topic that has been raised at the Council of Leaders. The agenda there are decided upon by consensus or as close as we can get to consensus, and this has not come up yet. But the new commanding officer is scheduled to meet with the NWT Council of Leaders at the next meeting, so I look forward to seeing what comes of that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Sahtu.
