Thank you, Mr. Dent. Ms. Lee. Thank you. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I want to ask the Minister in light of Ms. Lee's question in regard to the wilderness camps. You have $1.2 million. Has that been allocated already or are those dollars that will be allocated? I know there are some existing wilderness camps in the Northwest Territories and there are some that are being looked at right now in terms of the RFP that went out last month. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We pay the operators an amount of money per day per inmate that they have in their custody. So that is the budget that we expect to spend. The monies aren't actually allocated specifically to different camps because it really does depend on how many clients they have.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm really glad that the healing society is going to do the pilot project and I hope that someday we get a chance to look at that project once it's up and running and get the feedback from inmates to see how successful it will be. I guess the other part of the success of this pilot project is, once the clients, inmates, finish the project and get back into the communities and reintegrate we'll see how successful it's going to be because I'm crossing my fingers on this, that it be a successful program because we certainly need those people back into our communities in a good way. I guess the emphasis also is going to be looked upon as they're okay in the program, they're okay in the bush up there, it's time for them to come back into the community and reintegrate back into the community. Has there been some, I guess there would have to be some discussion, is there funding allocated to programs back in the community that would welcome these people back into the communities, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Often people going back into communities go back under supervision orders. So our people in the parole system will be working with them. The goal is to have a case management approach with other caregivers in the community around people as they go back. We're trying to improve on the ties between Justice and the other departments in order to facilitate that. There will be also often contact with members of the Community Justice Committee, either formally or informally, to try and help provide some supervision as people move back into the community.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I was in Tulita and I did serve on the justice committee. I know the struggles and aspirations of how to keep it going and keep the community informed as much as possible. Again, I cross my fingers on this pilot project that the community justice programs and the other programs that are in the communities have the support of this department and they can look at a smooth integration of the people back into the communities. I will always advocate for these wilderness camps to be as close as possible to the communities because I think out there in the bush the people that were hoping to serve there, that's the best way to get them back into society here. In terms of the wilderness camps, I know you don't allocate to specific regions, you allocate on proposals and I hope that my region, at least, someone has submitted a proposal to have a wilderness camp. I know I'm not too up to date on that, however, in saying that you have a facility here that was built a couple years ago down the road here in Yellowknife. It's a huge facility. I haven't looked at it yet. I hope that facility also helps our people. I made a visit to the YCC jail here and I talked to some of the inmates from the Sahtu region and I asked them a question. Would you like to spend your time here or in the bush? They always answered with we want to spend some time in the bush. I got to see and I know people who spend time in the bush and they could really benefit themselves and the communities in a lot of good ways that can be used for their time.

I'm not going to slam the previous government of the building over there. That's none of my doing. But I want to support that, in terms of getting people who I see have an elders program in there to really strongly put that elders program in there as one of the priorities in that facility. Use it to the max. It's there. It's waiting to be used. I don't have very much to say about it. I think I want to see how best we can use it. I hope I'm not encouraging our people to use it because it's a nice facility, I've heard. I haven't seen it yet. To deter them from going in there and look at more of the wilderness camps in the regions, at least. They'll have a hard time in the bush, but that's good for them. Let them work it out and use their muscles and use their minds. That's what the old timers were saying. Make them work. Make them think. I think that's something I just wanted to comment on, Mr. Chairman, is that I hope some emphasis will be given to the wilderness camps over the facility here in Yellowknife.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent, would you like to comment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree wholeheartedly with the Member that it would be great if we could get more people into wilderness camps. The problem isn't not having enough camps, it's getting enough people to say that they want to go to the camps. We are anxious to see more of the inmates take the opportunity and do encourage it. But we can't force them. We try and make it attractive to get into the camps, but there are limits. The inmate has to be suitable for that sort of placement. They have to have dealt with their issues while incarcerated and be ready for that sort of placement, then they have to want to go. If we can get people in that situation, then we're fairly confident that we've got some good camps available for them.

I think the Tl'oondih operation is certainly something that we're looking to see if it can be successful. We think that it will be and we're hoping that after we run the pilot project and have a look at the assessment that it will prove its use and that we will be able to see more of our clients going back to their home communities through a facility like that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Yakeleya.

Just a last comment here. I went to see the inmates from the Sahtu region at YCC. All 10 of them said they want to go. They want to go, they're willing to go, but they're not being forced to. I guess it's the process of how to get them to those camps. They all said yes, we want to go.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll just make this brief. I want to ask the Minister if he can provide me and maybe some other Members with the number of wilderness camps that are in operation in conjunction with the justice committee's program, how many clients have gone through the camps, the number of days they've spent in the camps, eligibility requirements. I'm pretty sure they all qualify, but I know they have to have probably, like, six months remaining in their sentences and what not. Just some of that information in regard to these camps. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have two camps in operation right now. In 2003-2004 so far there have been 3,407 bed days between the camps. So the daily average would be 12 inmates, and as of the middle of March there were 12 in the camps.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Villeneuve. Thank you. Community justice and corrections, operations expense, total operations expense, $32.554 million.

Page 7-27, community justice and corrections, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $1.494 million.

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