Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These community policing plans are actually an agreement between the RCMP and the community itself. They sit down and talk about what the priorities are and set some of their direction. I can’t tell you what every community policing plan says. There are 33 of them. I do know that in some communities, the communities have indicated that education and visits to the school are a priority, and that is in some of the community policing plans.

At this time, that’s not something we’re planning, but if committee were to ask us to take a look at that, we’re always open to have discussions with committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not familiar with that particular program, but I would love to sit down with the Member and have him educate me on the program. As far as funding goes, it’s hard to commit funding when I have no idea what the program is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, the program starts off with a $10,000 initial payout and then $5,000 in subsequent years. Because we haven’t had all 33 communities come on at one time, they have been coming at a staggered approach, the budget that we had is, actually, we are able to use that to cover the $10,000 where a few communities start in a year and then the rest are $5,000. So we actually have enough money to maintain them. Right now, as of January 13th, we have three more communities who have indicated a desire to start a Not Us! campaign. That is Fort Simpson, Norman Wells and...

Mr. Speaker, sustainable, vibrant and safe communities is one of the goals of this Assembly. To help achieve this goal, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made it a priority for all NWT communities to have a community policing plan in place. Last year was the first year all 33 communities had dedicated plans in place based on their own needs, resources and priorities.

These formal plans and the reporting structure were put into place several years ago. The difference the plans are making is evident. We now have communities participating in a full consultation to outline their...

I’ve had a lot of conversations with the commanding officer of “G” Division where I’ve indicated that education is very important in the Northwest Territories. Having the RCMP engage with students is a priority. I do know that a number of the detachments have been very active with community groups and things like the Not Us! campaign. As I’ve already indicated, I do know that in a number of communities, the communities have made that a priority as well. I’ll continue to have the conversations with the commanding officer of “G” Division and continue to encourage him to engage our communities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The program that we’re designing is actually designed with the intent of helping new employees, as well as some existing employees, understand the cultures and reality of working in the Northwest Territories. It was designed in participation with a number of different Aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories. As far as having it presented at something like the hand games, it’s not really designed for that. It’s designed for employees to help them understand the different cultures and the realities in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you. Obviously we’re committed to try and get the lowest prices for fuel in the 16 communities that we provide fuel to and we’re always looking for ways to decrease the cost. As far as subsidy on transportation, I’m not sure that that would actually lower the cost, because the GNWT would still have that cost on them, but I’m interested to have a further conversation with the Member and possibly with committee to get their thoughts on this. But we’re always looking for ways to control the cost of fuel in our 16 communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we do fuel hauls into the different communities depending on their location. In the summertime we provide fuel by barge to some of the communities in the High Arctic. In some communities, we bring it in by ice road. Prices are reviewed every time we bring new fuel into the community.

Once again, it is a full cost-recovery program based on the cost of the fuel that we purchase and have provided to the communities. Mahsi.

We, obviously, want a public service that represents the population that we serve, and as such, we have put in a number of these programs to help us attain that. I’m interested in what the Member has to say and I’d be happy to sit down and have a conversation with the Member to see what we can do, and discuss it further with committee as well.