Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have the same concern as the honourable Member in regards to our own people from our communities. Somehow or another, they find themselves on the wrong side of the law, get convicted and have to do some time in our correctional facilities.
Looking at the facility we have here in Yellowknife, it is a very old building that needs to be seriously looked at to see if we could build a new facility. It is overcrowded. There is very little space to do any real training or rehabilitation. I think there is just enough room for people to sleep. They have just enough room to exist. There is space in there to do a little bit of training and rehabilitation.
They have workshops out there. They have cognitive skills workshops. They have an aboriginal elders program. There are some aboriginal spiritual ceremonies that take place. They have a sweat lodge and different ceremonies going on there.
However, we are doing the best we can with what we have. We make do with what we have for now. It is not enough and I know that. We need to do more than what we have done. The people who are providing the programs and services are right to their limits with the resources and space they have to provide these programs.
The bush camps are an alternative to being here in Yellowknife. Besides that, there is a way of looking at how we could best provide service. In the books, there is a plan to build a new facility. However, that is going to cost $35 million. With our deficit problem, it is going to be difficult to do it anytime soon. That would be the ideal situation. It would create better living space, more rooms and so forth for them to do some of the rehabilitative types of workshops that are required to do that.
We are offering the best program we have and we need to have a better environment.
In terms of the types of programs we have, we are just establishing our own probation offices so that more offenders can perhaps serve some of their sentences in their communities. With the community justice circles that are forming in some of the communities, where it works fairly well, the rate of offenders is going down in some of the communities.
There will always be offenders in the correctional services. I agree with the Member that we should work with the Department of Health and Social Services for the programs and to see how we could improve on what we already have. Thank you.