Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When we talked with the Solicitor General, the general expression we gave him was we want to bring back inmates from the north who are serving time in the south. We want, as a government, to be able to provide facilities here if the federal government will cost-share it with us so we can design the facility, operate it and provide the kind of programming we feel is adequate and beneficial to our people. We specifically said to the federal government that we are not interested in talking about a federal penitentiary, which would be an institution, and programs designed and run by the federal government. That was not the answer. We wanted to have the federal government share the cost with us to build an adequate facility in the Northwest Territories and look at bringing all federal inmates to the north, who are not high risk or people who may be a danger to themselves or other inmates. The majority of people who are serving time down south from the north, can be provided with more than adequate facilities and programming in the territories.

The Minister had no difficulty with that proposition. In fact, he agreed to work with us on this issue. He took particular note of the fact that at least 60 per cent of all inmates from the north who are serving time down south are Inuit.