Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm a big supporter of the community safety officer program that's currently being piloted in Fort Liard. Unfortunately, I've learned recently, and I think maybe the public has as well, that the feds are going to be clawing back that funding after this if -- for the provinces and territories that don't have community safety officer legislation. Can the Minister -- or sorry, the Premier as Minister of Justice, can he let us know what that would entail, community safety officer legislation looks like. Because if it is something that's important to our communities, this is a program that lots of people have been talking about over the years, let's get it done. So how complicated is it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's very complicated. So the legislation that would be required is a Police Act which is the type of legislation that would allow municipalities to set up their own police forces and things like that. So it's not a simple community safety officer piece of legislation; it's much broader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have a sheriff -- no, we don't have a Sheriffs Act. That's another issue, a Sheriffs Act. I mean, we do have peace officers that are employees of the territorial government that have peace officer status under the Criminal Code. Is it time to look at this? We do have a crime problem. The Premier's well aware of it. The Premier has campaigned on it outside and inside the House. So maybe it's time to allocate additional resources. I don't want to lose this program; I want to keep our streets safe. Will the Premier bring forward legislation to bring sheriffs, community safety officers, and any other police force the territorial government, or our own communities want to create? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there's a lot of legislation I would love to bring forward during the life of this Assembly. The Police Act, you know, that would be one of them; you know, Sheriffs Act, I could probably go on and on and on. But we have limited resources, and we have to provide the legislation for the entire territory. The same way Ontario, Alberta, all these other jurisdictions have to provide legislation, we have to do that as well but we're a much smaller jurisdiction, so it's more difficult to deliver that amount of legislation. So for this Assembly, we have a full agenda, but future assemblies may wish to look at that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, as this House knows, it's pretty easy for Members on this side of the House to bring forward legislation. So I'll do the Premier a favour. I can start drafting this -- a bill to bring public safety officers into law in the Northwest Territories. If that comes forward, will he support that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we're not supposed to get into hypotheticals here on the floor, so I'll leave that one alone. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
