Glen Abernethy

As a result of this new contract that we have with the RCMP, it does change the relationship a little bit between us and them. One of the good items of that is the fact that there is more of a reporting relationship, more of a data relationship where they have to provide us with some of this type of information that Mr. Dolynny is talking about.

What I will do is I will commit to working with the department and the RCMP to figure out a way to get that information into our process, so that it’s at least there as an information so that people can see it. I can’t tell you what it’s going to look...

Madam Chair, that was in the community justice section. This is more legal services, coroner services, childrens lawyer, public trustee, those types of things. The services he is talking about are in the previous section.

The Member is right; we need to do more work, we need to do better work, we need to make sure that the service is there and I will absolutely work with my colleague, Minister Lafferty, on this language issue to see if we can find a solution in the best interest of the people of the Northwest Territories.

I’m going to be talking square metres because that’s the information I have in front of me. The absorption rate in Yellowknife has been about 2,000 square metres annually. If you factor in the new buildings that have come in over time, such as the Greenstone and the new office building, everybody has said we’re going to have a big problem in Yellowknife with too much space. Almost immediately, within a year, year and a half, two years, both those buildings have been completely filled.

The analysis that was done shows that this is the trend in Yellowknife and that we can handle more office space...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is absolutely correct. This is probably the area where the department saw its greatest growth. A number of the items are forced growth: radio replacements, $105,000; RCMP contract renewal, $2.8 million; isolated post and government housing allowance, $328,000; Commissioner’s contracts, $312,000; police reporting operations, $33,000; operational readiness and availability, $245,000; aviation fuel, $72,000; RCMP compensation and benefits, $207,000; and then some strategic initiatives from the RCMP, $137,000 for the family violence coordinator and $110,000 for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the areas that unfortunately sunsetted for us is the Aboriginal Justice Strategy, which is probably where you see the significant amount of this decrease, but we understand that that money is coming back. If it comes back, we will see it added back in.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It may touch in this area, but it would also touch in courts. We do utilize interpreters. We have a list of interpreters that we can go to to provide services when we need them. We provide translation when asked, for sure. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Madam Speaker, when the 17th Legislative Assembly set its goals, two of them were to support the growth of healthy, educated people and to operate an effective and efficient government. Today I would like to update my colleagues on an important development to the GNWT’s digital communications network, which is helping achieve those goals.

The network connects our 33 communities to the government’s communications system. Everything from critical department applications to Internet access and e-mail is delivered through this network. Without it, our ability to deliver high quality programs and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will go through the notes that I’ve heard from my colleagues. A number of my colleagues repeated similar things, so I’ll try to lump them into groups and then I’ll talk about some of them individually.

One of the things that came up a number of times is obviously Bill C-10. That’s something we are hearing a lot about right now and we have just completed the review, which has been shared with Members and has been tabled in the House. That report clearly shows there’s going to be what equates to about an 11-person increase in our male facilities.

We are concerned. We are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Not specifically. This isn’t one of the areas that this particular division is working on. This division has a lot more involvement with things like the community justice committees, who happen to be doing sort of on-the-land initiatives from time to time, which clearly, young families can participate in and benefit that way. But there’s nothing specifically being done necessarily for early childhood and development. This is about reintegration and trying to get people back on the right path.