Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There isn’t a simple, quick answer to the question when it is put that way. As Mr. Hawkins pointed out, there is a spin-off effect when you cut jobs in a community, so there is that side of it that does have an impact on employment and the overall economy of the town when you reduce jobs.

In terms of the direct impact on prisoners who are in remand, we have, typically, in the range of, over the last three years, about 66 people who have been placed in that facility from the South Slave per year. So there are about 66 on average that have gone in over the past little...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m aware of the recommendation that’s been made by the Standing Committee on Social Programs and I have no doubt that FMBS will consider that recommendation. I can’t say anything else besides that, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In general, because it takes 5.5 PYs to fill one position on a 24/7 operation, what we are talking about is generally one. If there had been in the past, two casuals called in per shift on average, now we are talking about having only one called in on average. I’m afraid I don’t know what the average has been or how many are called in on a regular basis, so I don’t know what the impact is going to be. But it would certainly be something that we could find out from historical data and ask the warden to advise the casual contingent what the likely impact is going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said earlier today, It’s my intention to work with the RCMP to develop a phased approach to responding to the communities that do not have RCMP and then work with my colleagues to see how we might address that. I can’t say that specifically it’s going to impact this way or that way because it really does depend on what the costs turn out to be for each community and then how my colleagues agree to move forward to address those costs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the Member’s last question, I would have to check with my colleague, the Minister of Public Works, to find out if the thermostat has been fixed yet.

---Laughter

I haven’t got that information with me. In terms of the schedule, the planning is proceeding, as I understand it. The whole process of locating the site for the school has proceeded over the course of the winter and the community has been involved in approving that site so that now we can start to prepare. The expectation is that construction will start to take place within the next fiscal year and the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I should probably go back to Mr. Menicoche because I haven’t been offered the occasion to respond for a number of Members. I can’t disagree with Mr. Menicoche that the RCMP in his region have a big area to cover with the six communities, and I certainly heard the Members yesterday talking about the need for more police services in communities that don’t have any services right now. As the information that I have with me here indicates, there are eight RCMP positions in Fort Simpson and four in Fort Liard. I don’t know if any of them are vacant at the moment, but that’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of the exact number of condominium corporations in operation right now. It is, though, I know a relatively small number. Condominiums are a fairly new method of housing in the Northwest Territories and that’s one of the other reasons, as we start to see more and more of them, that we need to take a look at our act and make sure that we are protecting the consumers adequately.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t think the Member would find any different opinion from Mr. Cooper or me, that justice delivered at the community level is better justice. I think what we would say, and Mr. Cooper advises me, that the community involvement in the Northwest Territories is already higher than what you would find anywhere else in Canada.

We have, across the Northwest Territories, 30 active community justice committees, where we are seeing them do exactly what the Member is recommending. They are taking administration of justice to the residents of that community and we are quite...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I speak to an event that reminds us of the dangers facing those who put their lives on the line to make our communities safer. Yesterday, four RCMP officers were shot and killed while investigating a suspected marijuana grow operation near Rochfort Bridge, Alberta.

This serious and tragic event has touched all of us, especially the officers’ colleagues here in the Northwest Territories who are represented in this House this morning by Inspector Greg Morrow and Inspector Roch Fortin of “G” division. It also reminds us of the...

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to present the 2005-06 Department of Justice main estimates. These estimates offer details on how the department will allocate its resources to meet its mandate of administering justice, including corrections and policing, in the Northwest Territories.

The 2005-06 operational budget for the department is $79.8 million. This is an increase of .58 percent of approximately $460,000 from last year’s main estimates. This increase will help make our communities safer and improve access to legal aid services.

Seventy percent of our total budget will be spent on law...