Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the process Public Works and Services uses, we first are requested by the client department to identify a cost for a specific project. The client department normally puts forward an idea of what the project would consist of. In this case, the North Slave Correctional Institute, the department was given a basic plan and design of what the client wanted. The department then went to the consultants, as we did not have any information on file for this particular type of structure. We went to consultants down south. We received from them estimated costs for this type of a building.
We are assuming that they then gather their information based on what experience they have building those types of structures down south. In this particular case, Public Works received from the consultants prices in the range of $35 million for this particular type of building. However, the consultants did point out that they did not have any real past experiences to base these figures on, because there was not any of that type of infrastructure in Canada, where you build a jail more towards rehabilitating prisoners rather than just holding them in as prisoners. They came forward with these prices and that price range.
We then took this back to the client department, the Department of Justice, and we told them this is what our consultants tell us is the estimate for this project. The client department then puts that into the budget and that is the figure we work with. Thank you.