Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do want to note the tone of frustration wasn't intended at the Minister directly. I was kind of -- justice Minister. I was just hoping, and I think MLA -- my MLA colleague was hoping for a simple yes, we'll attend, not this long government answer.
Mr. Speaker, on the same topic, my question for the -- general topic, that is, Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister respectfully is intended is this: Businesses are forced to deal with the cost of vandalism, shoplifting, etcetera, this is a cost passed on to the public. It's incurred the situation of hiring security guards and as such, the community is resolving the problem and it's hurting them hard. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of Justice see a role for his department and some direction through the contract with the RCMP to find ways to bring a more stable and safe environment back to our community. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the Government of the Northwest Territories made significant investment within the RCMP contract program to ensure that we're getting all of the opportunities that we can to bring resources to the territory. There's been a significant number of items that have been added over the last number of years. We have general investigation section which has five investigators that are specifically dealing with fraud, controlled drugs and substances. We have added the special response unit. There's also the community policing officer which is a liaison with different communities. We've added the First Nations and Inuit policing program. So there are a number of commitments that we've made within that budget to ensure you are that the resources are there for the RCMP to provide that service to Northerners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
And every one of those is to deal with serious crime, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, citizens are exhausted and not reporting crime on theft anymore, and they will say stats remain flat or stable, Mr. Speaker. The question specifically now is the fact that people are giving up on reporting crime because they feel the GNWT has directed the RCMP not to fully enforce the existence of the Criminal Code or even in some cases the Liquor Act provisions; is this correct, is it true or untrue? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will start off by saying I do not direct the RCMP to do anything. We provide a mandate to the RCMP with the priorities of this government for each year and what our expectations are, and the Criminal Code is -- and all of the laws that the RCMP enforce or investigate or act on is solely on the discretion of the RCMP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, in a roundabout way, the Department of Justice used to support community initiatives such as Citizens on Patrol, Mr. Speaker. It was a program in collaboration with the RCMP. Would the Minister be willing to revisit this initiative that citizens appreciated where they felt like they were being part of the bigger community solution making our communities safe? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are currently running a pilot project in the community of Fort Liard, which is going to be evaluated. It's a community policing project. And as we look to this evaluation document, once it's completed, we're going to use that as a tool to approach the federal government to look at what resources could possibly be available for communities. I've heard this raised multiple times from small communities that they're looking for another presence within those communities. So this is a tool that we're going to use to look at how we can evaluate this and see how it can support other small communities in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
