David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we could get the Member and the committee an update on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can get that information for the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we haven’t even got to April 1st yet, so my caution to the Member is just let us get to April 1st. We’re trying to put the key pieces in place so that we have the manpower at the Department of Justice to handle the increased workload.

The Member asked for I believe it was the job descriptions or what these positions will be doing. They’re lawyers. One of them will be dedicated to the area of prosecution, one of those five lawyers. We currently have two of our legal team embedded in the federal Department of Justice, learning how that process plays itself out, so that they can come...

Madam Chair, currently 12 communities are without a detachment. Gameti and Wrigley do not have detachments but they have dedicated members for their community, and I believe Tsiigehtchic is in that same situation, as well, where they have RCMP officers in McPherson that are dedicated to the community of Tsiigehtchic.

Of those other communities, all have fewer than 150 residents.

We do have, in addition to this money which is there to help operators with small equipment purchases, about $800,000 under another line item in the main estimates to help us get an on-the-land program. This is a small component of that, but there are other components to it as well on other pages. Thank you.

Thank you. It’s in all of our best interests to ensure that opportunities for employment are there on an annual basis and all throughout the year. I know some of the opportunity currently underway in the Sahtu is during the winter months. We need to ensure that there are opportunities for people year round, and if there is a way that we can put a bridge between the two to allow people to pursue their traditional economy and also be employed in the oil and gas sector in the Sahtu, that’s something that we should be looking at. As far as a report goes on the money, there would be some...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If the Member is looking for a connection in the Department of Justice, there isn’t one there. We have the main estimates before us today. The Member talked about a director’s position. We’d look at putting somebody in there in an acting capacity. We’d look at perhaps training somebody. There are transfer assignments. There’s maternity leave, the use of casual, relief workers. The money that we do have is certainly earmarked for compensation and benefits to our employees.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The integrated case management is under community justice.

Thank you. I thank the Member for his observations and his questions, and that’s something that we will consider. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those positions are all funded. Thank you.