Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One moment please. Mr. Chairman, if the Member is referring to the aboriginal justice directorate, that is, as I understand it, part of the Federal Department of Justice and not the GNWT Department of Justice.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As far as I understand, there is very little direct involvement. The Department of Justice assists, however, in communicating between this federal directorate and communities as they are working through funding contribution processes.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, this area will be covered later on under the community justice and corrections activity. In general, the response would be, we are interested in speaking with individuals and groups that would like to start up, or see if they could start up a correctional type camp or facility that is within the scope I had talked about in the House the other day.

Thank you. Directorate. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. I am advised this question is better directed under community justice and corrections. At this time, however, I will allow the Minister to respond. I caution the Members to try and stick to the item under the heading directorate at this time.

Mr. Chairman, I do not think there was a question, but if I could anticipate one, the way the department funds these types of young and adult offender camps, is through a per diem basis of x dollars a day, whichever it is, per inmate or offender.

Directorate. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we are talking about are two different classes of facilities. One, that the Member mentioned was the one-time planned community corrections centre, that was planned but did not materialize in Aklavik and in Fort Resolution. I understand that one of the reasons they did not materialize was because the operations and maintenance costs for operating these two facilities was quite high and in the long-term they would have proved to be much more expensive.

The other class of facilities, if I could, many of these facilities are adult offenders camps. There are, as I understand it, proposals from the Aklavik Indian Band for some camps. For at least one of the proposals they are very close to finalizing an agreement. Those are the types I did say in the House the other day, we are willing to move forward on. In terms of what we can do in the future, we can keep talking and discussing what we might want to do as government, what the community wants to do and what the region wants to do, but in the end, it will be the resources or the dollars which dictates what we can do.

Thank you. Your time is up. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Further to my earlier questions about the supplementary appropriations, the Minister had indicated there was $1.6 million, for the 1998-99 fiscal year, a rebasing. Can we be confident, then, that the department will not bring forward another request for supplementary funding during the fiscal year?

Thank you. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Chairman, before Mr. Cooper attempts to clarify even further what I had tried to answer before, the short answer to Mr. Erasmus is that we do not know that we will be asking for supplementary appropriations. There are several factors that might cause it. One is the policing contract. There is a nationwide issue and possible benefit changes and if that does go ahead, that would affect the GNWT and our contributions. We have the legal aid budget which I am unsure of right now if it is on track or not. Mr. Cooper could perhaps shed some more light on that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department received a rebasing of some $900,000 for an anticipated shortfall in the 1997-98 fiscal year. An additional $1.6 million has been approved for supplementary appropriation for 1997-98. That is for staffing deficiencies so there will be additional guards and classification officers hired. We are in the process of hiring them now for the Baffin Correctional, South Mackenzie and YCC. The previous Minister of Justice, the Honourable Kelvin Ng commissioned a study and a report by an expert. The first part of that report indicated the staffing was most necessary, if nothing else, a safety factor. The second part of

that report will be forthcoming in March. It is anticipated it will identify further deficiencies in corrections, some of which have been spoken of by Members here today. Minister Arlooktoo, together with some Cabinet colleagues, will look at that report and decide what action to take in response to it. It may possibly result in looking for further appropriation.

As for legal aid, it has been cut quite severely in the last two years. It is having a great deal of difficulty living with the budget it has, and we anticipate that the chairperson of the legal services board will be requesting additions to that budget, but it has not been quantified as yet.