Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to as concisely as possible recount the events and ironic contradictions which have led to the debate which has taken place in the House this week surrounding the government's decision to construct a collocated adult and male young offenders facility in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, I am obviously most familiar and most concerned with the young offenders facility component of this project. For a number of years Hay River was the home of a triple designated young offenders facility accommodating open custody, secure custody, and remand-detained youth. The structure was originally built as a receiving home for children. After being taken over as a young offenders facility, structural deficiencies under the fire and building codes were addressed to satisfy requirements on an ongoing basis, with the understanding that complete replacement would be required at some point in the future. The replacement of the facility was indicated in the five year capital plan.

Then along came the concept of Public/Private Partnerships, or P3. MLAs were canvassed to find out if there were projects in their ridings which might be adapted to P3 projects, thus alleviating pressure on the government's dwindling capital budget and involving private sector investment and generating much needed economic activity to diminish the negative impact that this diminished activity was having on our construction sector. After a brief scan of potential interest in my community for converting this projected capital replacement project to a Public/Private Partnership, I wrote to the Minister of Justice identifying this project. A list of 27 other projects was provided to Government Operations after departments provided input as to projected cost and level of priority of these facilities to their operations. On the list of 27 projects it clearly stated, replacement of young offenders facility Hay River, $10 million, high priority. After narrowing the list of projects in consultation with Government Operations, the Hay River young offenders facility was still on the short list of 12 projects.

It was not until the then Finance Minister, John Todd, issued a press release listing the P3 projects that Hay River's name was missing beside replacement of young offenders facility. When I questioned the Finance Minister in the House, he was evasive, but in private he assured me that he was pushing hard for Hay River but was meeting with resistance. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.