Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In relation to the new facility that is being built in Yellowknife, I am wondering if the Minister can indicate, when it comes to programming, he did talk about what the Department of Health and Social Services is doing in the community. I am wondering if the department has had any formal discussions with the Department of Health and Social Services about programming for young offenders with addictions problems in the new facility when it is built? Thank you.

Thank you. At an officials level, have there been formalized discussions between the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Justice about programming in the new facility to this point?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, I am not aware, but I am sure that through the social envelope group, we would be prepared to discuss that further. Thank you.

Thank you. I guess I am just trying to push the point here, Mr. Chairman, to make sure that the two departments are in fact discussing these kinds of issues. Once a facility has been constructed, it is difficult if adequate planning and space was not allocated for programming to go back and rebuild the facility. I would hope that the people who are in the business of delivering this type of program, which would be the Department of Health and Social Services, and also Justice, when it comes to facilities, would be consulted in these matters.

I did have questions for the Department of Health and Social Services earlier about programming in the new facility and did get a response back from the Minister that indicated that the Department of Justice felt that their current approach had been fairly successful, but that Justice had indicated its willingness to consider development of addiction treatment programs for delivery within correction facilities if, on review, it was shown that another approach was warranted.

I suppose I had just hoped that in answering my questions this way, the Department of Health and Social Services was in fact consulting with the Department of Justice, and the Department of Justice did indicate that it was willing to look at all the possibilities and all the possible methodologies for delivering programming. It would seem a shame to build a brand new facility simply to lock young people up and not to adequately address their programming needs.

I just want to encourage the Minister to at least enter into formalized discussions with the Department of Health and Social Services on these types of issues. I think it is important. Going forward, they have a relationship, they have an ongoing relationship to work on these types of programming issues when it comes to young offenders with addictions problems. We know for children in our community who may not be incarcerated, sometimes it is difficult to get the adequate level of counselling they need, if in fact they need to be in a facility. I think there is an availability of out-patient services but not necessarily residential. Sometimes it is a matter of having to get them into facilities in the south.

It would seem that if we could kill a couple of birds with one stone and have drug and alcohol treatment programs available in the young offenders' facility, it would make a lot of sense and it might save us from having to send young offenders who were released eventually to the south for programming and for treatment. I would just like to encourage the Minister to continue on that road.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to lend clarity to the points there, we still want to support the ongoing existing establishments, such as alcohol and drug treatment centres, the existing programs that are delivered at the community level. Certainly when you talk about overall programming, we need to look at the community resources that are already provided. Then we could take a look at our client base and see where those specific to young offenders would fit, either through local family counselling services or alcohol and drug committees, or a number of processes that are developed locally to support the rehabilitation process.

I wanted to let the Member know that we are aware of that and we will continue to promote that within our institutions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, since I have been elected, over the last couple of years in the 14th Assembly I have been raising the issue and trying to demonstrate the need that we have to spread our resources from this government across the board, and not pool all the facilities, all the infrastructure into a few major, larger centres. Judging by the capital plan this year and for the next couple of years, it is pretty obvious that I have not been successful.

It really bothers me because there is a methodology that we could utilize to encourage and stimulate the economy in our communities, but that would mean devolving some of these responsibilities into the smaller communities. Unfortunately, the capital plan was set, for the most part, in the 13th Assembly for the capital projects, especially in the area of Justice and a few of the bigger projects. We really did not have a say or any type of debate where the new jails were going to go, or where the new facilities were going to go.

I wanted to ask the Department of Justice if they could explain to me why none of the smaller communities, such as Fort Providence or Fort Simpson, or Rae-Edzo or Fort McPherson, is ever considered to house these facilities, the new jails or the new youth centres?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps the Member is quite correct that these decisions are reflective of the previous Assembly. We are carrying out the wishes of the government of the day. It is hard for us to determine. Again, I think if there are new facilities constructed in the future, we have to really respect the wishes of the Members.

I guess one point that should be raised here is that, and just taking an excerpt from what the demographers say, the larger migration to the urban centres, and that is usually where the level of professional services is rendered, to the population in general.

Like I said earlier, our objective here is to continue to provide a level of service to the inmates, as well as to others who are incarcerated into our facilities, whether it is adult corrections or under the young offenders program.

That is the basic answer we have for the Member today. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister if he could tell me what he means by professional services. Does that mean medical people? What does that mean?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It may extend to the medical profession. It may extend into other professional areas. I am not certain, but that seems to be the trend. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, the Minister is saying that the communities are good enough for the ordinary Joe on the street, the aboriginal people and everybody else who lives in the small communities but not good enough for an inmate. Is that what he is saying?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I hope the Member is not trying to put words into my mouth. I am certainly not going to be discriminating small communities because I do come from one myself.

The point is that we are trying to support small communities by having open custody placements anywhere there are camp settings, as well as other small communities that could support the intention of the corrections. I really cannot answer much more, other than what I said. Some of these decisions reflect on previous Assemblies and I cannot answer for that. Thank you.