A committee of MLAs will be holding public meetings in Aklavik and Inuvik next month as part of their review of a proposed Missing Persons Act.
Members of the public are invited to attend the meetings set to take place on April 9 at the council chambers building in Aklavik and April 10 at the Midnight Sun Complex in Inuvik. In both communities, supper will be served at 5:30pm and the meetings will begin at 6pm.
RCMP have previously suggested that the lack of missing persons legislation in the NWT has complicated efforts to find Frank Gruben. The 30-year-old Gwich’in Inuvialuit man from Aklavik was last seen in Fort Smith on May 6.
A senior RCMP official later walked back that suggestion but several NWT residents and friends and family of Gruben have called for the territory to develop such legislation.
The NWT government had committed to developing a missing persons act in response to calls to do so from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The territory has said such legislation would help “facilitate the collection of necessary and timely information by police when conducting a missing persons investigation.”
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While progress on the act had been delayed, Premier RJ Simpson, who is also the justice minister, introduced a bill proposing the legislation last month.
The bill is now being reviewed by a committee of regular MLAs.
Members of the public can provide input on the proposed legislation by attending a meeting in person or sending written submissions to [email protected].
