Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I have spoken to Chief Superintendent Summerfield about the issue of drugs in the Northwest Territories. Much of our discussion in the past year has been about working with the federal government to make sure that all of the federal positions are filled in the Northwest Territories. The Government of the Northwest Territories is responding to the resourcing request that has been put in by the RCMP and some of that is in this year’s budget. I am hoping to follow through and complete the numbers that they have requested in next year’s budget. I have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the best of my knowledge the operations in Hay River were all run effectively and very close to on budget, if not under budget. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that the people who work at Dene K'onia have a lot of good skills that could be used in the system, and I have no doubt that they would be qualified for some of the positions in Yellowknife. If they are interested in transferring to Yellowknife and taking those positions, I am sure that they would be offered some of them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I never, at any time, said that the facility was not being run effectively and efficiently. What I did say was that if we are going to have the number of young people that we have in custody, which is a very small number, we can’t afford to operate two facilities. It doesn’t matter how effectively or efficiently they are being operated, it’s still costing way more than is necessary to spend.

We need to rationalize the number of facilities because we don’t have the number of kids that are being kept. This isn’t something that is new just to us. This is happening all...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just perhaps I could suggest that before we go to general comments on Bill 19, Department of Transportation, that we consider Bill 15 and see if we can’t conclude that and then resume with the Department of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As recently as last week I had that confirmed to me by the RCMP from headquarters here. So as far as I know, it may have changed in the last week, but I doubt it. I believe that the traffic unit will be increased by two officers based in Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it is common to have people from all regions, especially as we have reduced the numbers of facilities across the Territories. I guess the only point is that, on occasion, Members have made the point that we need to provide services close to home, as Mr. Villeneuve was doing. If we are going to follow that, then we have to take a look at what’s closest to home for people from Inuvik as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, with the positions that we have in this year’s budget and what was in last year’s budget, we are only going to be six positions short of what the RCMP asked for. I told the standing committee, when I appeared in front of them, that it was my intention to put the request forward as part of the business plan for next year, to follow through on delivering those RCMP officers in the next budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When Mr. Villeneuve was asking about services to his communities, he was referring to inmates from the South Slave region. I was referring to the number of inmates in the facility from the South Slave region. That, in the past couple of weeks, has been one or two. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that we’re not talking about adding. Even if we were talking about adding positions in the North Slave Correctional Centre, it is not in the remand part of the facility. I’m not aware that there have been any concerns about staffing in that area, and my understanding is that the vacancy in beds could be filled up without there having to be an increase in the numbers of staff. At this point, the two are not the same. If we’re talking about an increase in staff in the facility as it stands, it would be the same as an increase in the overall staffing...