Thank you again, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by Mr. Delorey on June 14, 2002, regarding the North Slave Correctional Centre and the lack of comparable facilities in the south to use for cost estimates.
This project is unique. There are no other corrections facilities like it in Canada.
-- Laughter
It not only has maximum, medium and minimum security requirements, but added to this is a healing, spirituality, restorative justice component in the design and programming of the institution. It is also sharing a number of areas with the young offender facility, such as the gym, the kitchen, and the security system, as well as the heating and ventilation systems.
Not only is the facility unique, but design and cost information for southern correctional facilities is limited and is difficult to apply to the NWT for two reasons. First, the North has environmental and technical constraints that are not comparable to the south. Second, the scale of projects in the south is much larger than the North Slave project.
These are not the only reasons why a firm price was not obtained before the project began. In 1998, the fire marshal condemned the Dene K'onia Young Offender Facility for the secure holding of young offenders. The Department of Justice was given until July 1, 2001, to erect new facilities. Under pressure from the fire marshal's order, it was necessary to "fast track" the construction of this project and to use an alternate method of construction. There is no general contractor but instead a construction manager who tenders out various aspects of the job to subcontractors. The drawings for phase one were done incrementally. Drawings for a certain aspect would be done and that job would go out to tender. While that was being done, the design engineers were designing the next stage of construction. Given this approach, it was not possible to get the price for the entire project in advance. Incidentally, the drawings are now complete for the whole project.
Finally, the overheated construction market that is currently being experienced could not be anticipated when the initial project budget was established in 1999. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.