Mr. Speaker, the staff at River Ridge when initially informed of this triple designation had expressed some concern about this initiative. We have since sent some of the staff from River Ridge to a facility in Alberta to have them see first hand how similar facilities operate with the same type of demands. It is interesting to note the staff have come back from the visit with a much better idea of how they can provide young offenders in an open custody setting with effective programs that reflect the nature of their needs. The staff are of the view that they can take on this challenge. In fact, they have said so. They feel, because of the visit, they have a better understanding of the type of programming and needs of young offenders sentenced to open custody. They believe they are now in a position to alleviate the fears of the rest of the staff at River Ridge about this change. The senior people who travelled to the facility in Alberta have all concluded that the difference between open and secure custody in the same facility can in many ways be subtle and definitely manageable by a staff, such as the staff in River Ridge. They have said, at least many of them, they view this change as a challenge and look forward to working with all young offenders in the future.
I think the point of it, aside from all the detail which I thought the Member was indicating she was going to avoid since she recognized neither of us are lawyers, is the main difference between secure custody young offenders and open custody in the area of programming and the level of supervision and security which is provided to the closed custody young offenders, and the increased training that the staff who are responsible for closed custody young offenders require. As I have said earlier in this House, we felt because of the increased training which River Ridge staff have, it is not a great demand to ask them to broaden their base of experience and to use their expertise to also take on the responsibility of taking care of young offenders. It is my understanding that, in fact, while they are going to take on mostly young offenders as of a week or so from now, it has been the staff of River Ridge who have requested to keep at least two young offenders who were sentenced to secure custody. I think in their view they can do the job which is required of them, meet all the legal requirements stipulated by legislation and still meet the interests of the young offenders. I think there is definitely some movement towards seeing this as a challenge, something which is definitely manageable and one that is going to be in the interest of the young offenders, the government and the staff at River Ridge.