Don Morin Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. It is interesting, I do not know if there is a lack of understanding or if there is just not a will at all, once a decision is made, to listen to any other input on it. I see the slipping and the sliding. A renovation can be changed to build a new building because the function of the program delivery has not changed. That is amazing. It has not changed the project. That is totally, totally amazing. The next thing we are going to hear in this Legislative Assembly is probably that we have now decided to build a brand new highway between Fort Rae and Yellowknife instead of reconstructing the old one over many years - and we can do that all on our own - because the function of the program delivery has not changed. There are still going to be the same vehicles going over and over it. It is the same type of issue. Some of us may be going on the campaign trail later, but I think some are there already.

It is amazing to hear the Minister, who did not have the decency or the foresight to follow the process and consult with the committee or Members that it affects, now offer for us to have some input into the building design. He is going to be involved. I do not know what his qualifications are, but he is going to be involved. There are a lot of people and organizations in Canada that say these cement buildings with bars, stuck on the outskirts of populated areas to house aboriginal inmates, do not do their job. The numbers of people going in there just keep going up and up and up, and there is never any change. The numbers just increase. I have seen programs and talked to people. People are taking different approaches on how to house and give program delivery to aboriginal inmates. There are different approaches all through Canada. It seems ironic, Madam Chairperson, that in the Northwest Territories, where aboriginal people are just about the majority, close to 50 percent of the population, we are going to build a building to warehouse inmates. I think it is safe to say it is over 90 percent aboriginal people in our correctional centres, but there is no imagination to do anything different.

Before this Minister became the Minister, the previous Minister had no choice but to make the decisions he made, for the simple reason that you are talking about a renovation of a building. Nothing else, just a renovation. You had to do it because of a fire marshal's order. Now all of a sudden you have brand new dollars. You are going to build a brand new facility. What do they want to build? They want to build a cement building with bars on the windows and a gym that young offenders and adult offenders can share, and I believe it is a kitchen that they both get to share as well. I do not know if that is the answer at all. I do not even know if this is the proper place to put a brand new building of that type. I do not even know, if you have $35 million kicking around, if that is the right approach. I do not know that. I do not have the information that you all have. What I do know is that if you take the opportunity to consult with the standing committee, if you take the opportunity to consult with MLAs and other interest groups, if you have the time, maybe somebody with some qualifications, maybe somebody with some experience may have another answer. Then again, maybe those same people will say, you are doing the right thing, that is the right thing to do. I do not know that. We have not been given the opportunity to go explore that. The Minister says this is the first time his department has a capital expenditure budget. Well, if it is the first time, he should attempt to do it right. He should attempt to make the right decision. But then alas, again, you would never want to question the Minister that knows what is good for all because he has made the decision. He went south. I think he went to Alberta and Saskatchewan. I am not sure where he went, but he went somewhere anyhow where these facilities exist. No, no I am bragging you up, Mr. Minister. You are such a great guy with great vision. Very short-sighted vision but great, anyhow.

But what I cannot understand is what we are attempting to do and we are meeting great resistance from the government is to have the ability to go out and get some advice as well. We would like that opportunity as well. You have had the advice of your departments, of the bureaucracy, of the people in the system. I do not know if you had advice from people outside the system, from the inmates themselves. I do not know if you have gotten that advice. I have not seen any of that information. Maybe this is the greatest decision that was made in the 13th Legislative Assembly, or is going to be made. I do not know that.