Mr. Speaker, the staff at the River Ridge Secure Facility have been notified that as of April 5, they must be ready to house young offenders. The two other young offender facilities in Hay River and Iqaluit were designated some time ago, in January, to be open custody programs where young offenders could stay. River Ridge is the last to be designated as an open custody. There are no renovations required to allow an open custody program to be carried out in River Ridge. The Member was correct when she stated the facility was not intended for open custody when it was originally built. At that time, there was felt to be some need for secure custody bed space. Now that the number of secure custody beds across the territories exceeds the number needed, there is some flexibility in how present facilities can be used.

The occupancy rate for secure custody facilities as a whole is about 65 per cent. The River Ridge facility has had a very low occupancy rate. It currently has space for 14 and is only occupied by five young offenders. There are 19 staff at River Ridge. Mr. Speaker, the intent of our short-term remedy to the situation is to make better use of the staff we have, which is 19 people. They are already very well trained and there is very good morale. The facility is in excess of $2.5 million and just sitting there vacant most of the time. We have to take whatever measures we can to make use of existing facilities. The sense is that we can make better use of it as an open custody facility.

The present young offenders who are there can be out of River Ridge by the end of this month or early in April. With a short break for some training for the staff, we can have open custody sentenced offenders in River Ridge by early April. Thank you.