Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the Cabinet discussion there was an initiative that was put forward by the Minister that is responsible for corrections, the Minister of Justice. In putting his case forward to the Cabinet during the discussions, it was a number of points that were regarded in order to come to this decision and it was one of the items on an agenda, which we dealt with and it was changes that we considered in looking at this project. The project, the decision has been to, we never really discussed putting it in any other place because the decision was already made to put it here in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The decision had been made to renovate an existing facility, so Cabinet had the opportunity to consider other regions. Cabinet had the opportunity to consider spreading the wealth. Cabinet had the opportunity to consider boosting up other economies other than Yellowknife, other regions. Did Cabinet consider any of those things when they made a decision on building a brand new correctional facility and was it a political decision? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. The Minister that is responsible for corrections, the Minister of Justice, has reviewed this whole initiative like the honourable Member is talking about, and he brought his recommendations forward to the Cabinet and then we debated and we agreed to make the decision that we did. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Everyone in this House and everyone clear across the Western Territories has heard the Minister of Finance say that we have a limited amount of dollars. Cabinet is well aware that you have a limited capital budget, but yet, they choose not to look at other regions. You choose not to consider other communities to try to spread out the wealth and share with other people in the Northwest Territories other than spending the majority of our dollars in the city of Yellowknife? Is this what the Premier is saying? Ultimately, on any decision, it is my understanding that Cabinet, that is what we put them there for, is to make those decisions, make those political decisions. So, to the Premier, did you make a political decision to increase

the capital expenditures in the city of Yellowknife and ignore the other regions of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Mr. Antoine.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Premier, I guess I should make it clear in case he was not listening. I never ever did say to renovate the existing facility. I do not believe that makes a lot of sense from the information that I see. It makes sense, it makes all the sense in the world to build a new facility. When you change the scope of work of the project from a renovation of an existing facility in any community to building a brand new facility that will house people for the whole Northwest Territories it is something completely different.

This Cabinet had the opportunity to show some political will and strong political decision making. It has happened in the past, Mr. Speaker. When I first became a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I remember River Ridge being moved to Fort Smith. It did not make economic sense, it was a hardship on all the professional people that were based in Yellowknife, but the Cabinet of the day made that decision because it diversed the economy to other regions. Is the Premier now saying that Cabinet is not willing to do those things anymore, is everything going to be built in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable Member is talking about when he first got into the Legislative Assembly. He got into the Legislative Assembly before me when the government of the day had lots of money to spend. As you know, in the last couple of years we have had to cut back drastically and the Finance Minister has also indicated that the next two years do not look too good. We may even have to consider cutting back some more, whoever gets into the next government. We have to take all that into consideration very seriously. We cannot take that very lightly.

No, not everything is being built in Yellowknife. I think we are building a hospital in Inuvik and there are colleges going up, I think in Fort Smith and Inuvik and there are facilities going up in the small communities as well. Sure, it looks like this decision to build this facility here in Yellowknife is only concentrated in Yellowknife, but this decision was made a number of years ago. We are just carrying through with a decision that was made to spend the money on the correctional facilities and the young offenders. That was the decision that was made. It was made to spend money on the correctional centre and the young offenders and we are just looking at ways of how to make it cost-effective to try to do the same thing. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.