Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Strategy for Teacher Education in the Northwest Territories, 2007–2015.

Document 47-16(2), Strategy for Teacher Education in the Northwest Territories, 2007–2015, tabled.

Mr. Speaker, one of the proposals is the reduction in the Arctic Tern facility. Not only that, but the cost for us to operate the facility, with the way it’s been operating with the number of inmates in there and the number of staff.... It’s just the feasibility of the operations. So that’s what our department’s been tackling.

Mr. Speaker, our department is working with another firm that is doing the overall.... We’re working closely with PWS, as well, on the foundation itself and the structure of the building.

The building is a fairly new building, but there are some structural damages to it, so we need to develop plans on that, the next step. The review has been done on that part.

Mr. Speaker, the tour happened just before session, so I told the Member that I will certainly sit down with my department and work out a plan of when the scheduled visit will be. It would have to be probably sometime after session, to have them tour the facility and then sit down and start planning what we can do next. Certainly the Member will be involved in that, and other Members who are interested.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll certainly make a commitment here to deal with the scheduled visits to the communities. I’ll work closely with the RCMP G Division. We do have schedules in place. We need to monitor those schedules. My department will certainly follow up with that, and I will certainly get back to the Member on this particular item.

Mr. Speaker, this is one area that our department is focusing on: those without detachments. We will certainly work on a schedule. We do have schedules in place for visits from the regional centres to communities without detachments.

Also, the Member talked about possibly options of overnighting. We need to work with the communities in finding suitable accommodation for officers to be in a safe environment in the communities. So we are continuing to work with the communities to identify those accommodations.

Also, the Member brought up a good point about building relationships. That is one of...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce that the new RCMP detachment is now open in Sachs Harbour. This has been a priority of both this and previous governments for many years and has finally become a reality. A corporal and constable are now in the community providing full-time policing services. They will be able to respond immediately to any situations that arise and will work on crime prevention activities with community members.

The detachment in Sachs Harbour was closed in 1992 due to resource issues. Since then officers from Inuvik have provided regular patrols and responded to emergencies...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me here today to introduce Bill 4 Mark Aitken, director of the legislation division.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The purpose of the bill — Bill 4, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2008 — is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories for which minor changes are proposed, or errors or inconsistencies have been identified.

Each amendment included in the bill had to meet the following criteria:

It must not be controversial;

It must not involve the spending of public funds;

It must not prejudicially affect rights; and

It must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.

Departments responsible for the various statutes being amended have...