Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I too want to welcome you here and thank you for the hard work you do for our communities on a day-to-day basis.
I do want to acknowledge, for the police officers who are present here today, the loss of a police family member: Sergeant Ryan Russell, of course, was lost in the ultimate sacrifice yesterday.
I also want to acknowledge, for the RCMP's benefit, a first that has occurred; I want to acknowledge the appointment of Chief Superintendent Russ Mirastyi, who will officially take over as the commanding officer--the first first nations commanding officer--of âFâ Division. I commend these aboriginal success stories. I want to highlight them, and the reason I do that is because during these kinds of sessions we hear the bad, but we rarely hear the good, and I want to give the RCMP an opportunity to address some of the things that have been said here today. I guess I'm a little bit spoiled because I happen to be a police officer on a leave of absence, so I've had relationships with the RCMP and other jurisdictions. It is a family. So it's unfortunate to hear that sometimes they don't get to talk.
But with the RCMP, when Ms. Michell mentioned jurisdictional problems with task forces, can you address how we overcome that? There's $10 million that has been allocated to the missing and murdered aboriginal women's file, and I believe a part of that money may help to prevent that gap from reoccurring. So if you would, tell me your impression of how that would help and what your experience is here in Manitoba jurisdictionally.