Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome to the Minister and the Justice team here tonight. I’ve got a number of questions on this page relating to constables. I’ll start my questions off with the awareness and the support of recruiting for community constables.

Where are we at with the department? Are there special initiatives that are ongoing and how successful have we been in that area?

The terminology of interim measures is exactly that. We don’t really have a program in place currently in a lot of our communities and highway infrastructures. My guess is that an interim proviso in terms of providing any type of ground ambulance protocols or anything that they have will enhance what we don’t have today and would probably be better than having nothing.

My question is: Would the department consider interim measures for ground ambulance support in community highway infrastructures during this fiscal year?

If I could remind the Minister, it’s not for my comfort that I’m asking for this information. It’s for the taxpayers who are asking if we were good stewards of the availability of such funds. I just want to make sure that’s put on the record.

Not that I want to dial 911 on this issue, but the concern that was brought up by my colleague here Mr. Nadli in terms of our Ground Ambulance Program is something of a concern. We don’t need to have a disaster on our highways to do so. It just so happens that we had a disaster as of late with respect to areas where a ground ambulance or an air ambulance...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to pick up where I left off on the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program which has sunsetted with the federal government. This was established in 1980, according to their website, to enhance the national capacity to respond to all types of emergencies and to enhance resiliency of critical infrastructure. Over the course, they gave out $170 million to provinces and territories at a federal contribution of 75 percent to the projects.

My question is this: This free money – and I will call it free money – was available to this government up until the fiscal year-end of...

Thank you. Now, these communication protocols, I would assume, would involve contacting a cascade, a number or an algorithm of community support networks from territorial to federal and potentially government leaders. How is this communication protocol accessed? Is this something that is published? Thank you.

No further questions but I would like to report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m still not getting enough level of comfort knowing that we do not have a formalized system of communication with our federal counterpart. Running across the street isn’t, in my mind, the most effective way of dealing with a natural disaster should it occur in our communities.

Given this information, is there any opportunity that the department sees this as being an opportunity to enhance the current so-called lack of model that we have and will this become a priority for this department in this fiscal year? Thank you.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results and statistics to validate the significant improvement that we’re hearing from the Minister. We’ll find out at year-end whether or not that is entirely accurate. What I heard from the Minister today is that we’ve got plans in place. It sounds like they’ve hired a personnel officer to oversee some of the changes that are imminent in that department. Yet I didn’t hear about any new safety program initiatives to make the workplace safer. Can the Minister elaborate what safety programs the department is involved with to make the workplace a safer place?

Madam Chair, is there any type of study or working group on this so-called preparedness of a real-time database?

Madam Chair, I have no further questions.