Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this year, the Dene Nation hosted a public safety forum here in Yellowknife to address the growing challenges our small communities face from violent crimes and drug trafficking. Across the North, our communities are hurting. Families are being torn apart as drugs spread deeper into our territory and into our homes of our people. Local leadership knows what's best for their communities.
And this forum was an important chance to come together and find real solutions to keep our people safe. Our communities have s strong Indigenous leadership on crime, but we also need a government that listens, partners with us, and ensure new strategies are put into action with real, right resources in place.
In this era of reconciliation, our right to self-determination must guide policies and decisions that affect our future, and one of the biggest threats to our future are drugs and violence and suffering they bring.
At the forum, the Dene Nation passed several comprehensive resolution on crime, mental health, and addictions. From this work, they will engage with their communities to provide feedback on Indigenous justice system and strategies. Study on Dene led policy programs and a call on government to consult Dene communities on RCMP contracts. I know that the RCMP are working with Indigenous government and small communities to keep people safe, but it's up to the Minister to make the structural changes needed to deepen those ties and ensure local leadership is at the table.
The Minister must also work with Indigenous leaders to urge the federal government to address chronic understaffing and high turnover in our communities. Later this afternoon, I will have questions for the Minister of Justice on how we can bring more RCMP to the North and ensure that Indigenous communities have meaningful authority over how the communities are kept safe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
