Thank you, Ms. Ashton.
Yes, it's hard to overstate, frankly, the importance of focusing and prioritizing our efforts on the missing and murdered in our communities. Undoubtedly Project Devote, I believe, is a clear manifestation of that commitment, as are the 20 investigators chosen specifically based on their highly skilled investigative abilities from the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP to look at and examine clearly a number of those tragic circumstances.
Also, very importantly, in addition to the prong on investigation, is the community outreach aspect of what Project Devote is about as well, where we have dedicated personnel who in fact work with people in the communities, work with grassroots people, whether on the streets of Winnipeg or in small towns or very remote communities, as you know, in the province of Manitoba. Clearly the resourcing is my bailiwick, to ensure that those investigative teams and those investigators specifically targeting or looking at that issue are properly resourced to be able to do what they can.
Your second question with respect to working with, and the collaborative approach, I attempted to deal with that a little bit in my earlier commentary. One of my priorities since coming to the province of Manitoba was to in fact energize community engagement in a meaningful way, recognizing that issues, the underlying causes, if you will, leading to violence are complex and multi-sectoral, and in fact need everyone to be standing shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm to deal with them.
I'm very happy to say that my commanders in the 52 detachments that we police in that province embrace that concept and get it. One thing about police officers is that they're for the most part action oriented. They want to see results. They feel the frustration and want to improve the work in their communities. My members live in the communities that they police, so it's very important for them to work with the community members who they live with.