R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, me and my spouse are from the territory and sometimes we'll run into someone who went down that path, and we can see that impact where, you know, our paths diverged and someone has gotten into that life and it is it's tough. It's tough on us to see. And so I know that when it's in your family, when it's someone close to you, when you see it every day in your community, it is difficult. So this is a serious issue that we are all feeling the effects of one way or another. And so there's a number of things that we're working on to try and address this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in the communities without RCMP present all the time, they have there are RCMP who are dedicated to travel to those communities at regular intervals. And with everything that has gone in the past few years, I guess four years now, the intervals might not have been as regular as we would have hoped. But at the Behchoko detachment, there are two officers who are dedicated to going into Gameti.

In addition, the RCMP had taken new approaches to combatting the drug trade. We've seen the increase in drugs over the last four or five years and because of that, the RCMP have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And when I was answering the Member's questions earlier, I spoke about some of the initiatives that this government wants to undertake and provide additional tools to the RCMP. But ultimately, this starts in the community. You know, when I've heard of communities really getting past their drug issues, it's been at the grassroots level that has driven it. And so, you know, public safety is in our mandate. Dealing with this issue is in our mandate. So I look forward to working with the Indigenous governments, many of whom have a very strong interest in this area as well...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to sit down with the Member, maybe have a conversation, maybe get a written question, just so I know I'm clear on what we're discussing. I'd like to I wish I could just say, you know what, we got some we do have things in mind. It's a matter of resourcing and all of that in order to get into fruition, but I'm happy to have a further discussion with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, the idea that women in Yellowknife, and generally people in the NWT, are overpoliced, there could be some validity to that given that we have more RCMP per capita than anywhere else in Canada, twice as many as the Canadian average. So there definitely is a lot of policing. The RCMP also receive many, many, many calls from the shelters. If one of their clients is violating one of their policies, they will often call the RCMP to come and deal with that. So the RCMP do get those types of calls. They have turned into sort of the catchall for every issue that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't want to get into hypotheticals as it's not in line with the rules of the Assembly. But I look forward to seeing what comes of the after-action review, and we'll make our decision then. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Northwest Territories Law Foundation 41st Annual Report for the Period Ending June 30, 2023. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When somebody needs some information and they want to go forward and get it, in some cases it probably is reasonable that that person pays. It's a user pay system otherwise everybody else pays for that person's access. And so that is something that we need to take into consideration. I understand what the Member is saying. It's some of these small irritants that, you know, impact people the most because they have to engage with those, you know, time and time again. But all the nickels and dimes add up, Mr. Speaker. We're trying to deliver serious services for people. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so I am familiar with that accessing some of the registries, like the corporate registries and land titles do involve a fee. I've never tried to access my own. I was actually just trying to do that, but I didn't get it in time for the question. But I would assume I would have to pay for my own information just the same way as anyone else. So I am aware. Thank you.

Thank you. And thank you, everyone, for the comments; I do appreciate it. I know that this is a departure from previous mandates of this government and of other mandates that you would see in a system where there's a political party who can bring together their apparatus, come up with a plan, and lay that out on day one.

The reason that this mandate is sparse in terms of actual deliverables is because I've seen two mandates prior to this government. I've been involved with the Assembly for two previous terms, and each of those mandates had hundreds I think the first one had hundreds, the...