Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so you had two facilities: one completely staffed up with experienced people, operational; another one just finished being constructed, not staffed up, obviously newer people in those positions. What was the determining factor that made the choice between the two facilities to be that Yellowknife would be a facility open for open custody young offenders and that Hay River would be closed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the reasons, Mr. Speaker, was that the facility in Yellowknife is a combined facility. One half of it is for secure custody and the other is open custody. Because it is the only secure custody facility in the Northwest Territories, we can't close the facility down. So the level of savings that could be achieved by not operating the open side were not nearly the same as what could be achieved by closing a facility down completely. That was one of the reasons. The other was just the fact, as the Member noted, that one was newer than the other, and the issue of programming is one that the facility has been operating for nearly two years now in Yellowknife. The programming is of a similar nature to that offered at Dene K'onia and we can offer the same types of programming. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has indicated previously that the number of young people who are sentenced to open custody facilities has been reduced by new legislation that has come into place with respect to youth justice. At this time, the populations and the numbers are lower; the census is lower than it has been in the past. Does the Minister not see this as a temporary situation and, if he did see this as a temporary situation, what's the contingency plan for when those numbers come up again after you've dismantled this key piece of infrastructure? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if we look at all of the young offenders facilities that we have or the spaces that we have for young offenders right now, we're not anywhere near 50 percent occupancy. It will take some time before we get up to a level where we expect that we would need these facilities again. Whether it's two years, five years or 10 years, I can't predict how long it's going to be before we need more facilities. I would hope that we never need more facilities, but, if we do, then we can deal with that through either the provision of homes for young offenders, which is one of the preferred options. If necessary, we can even look at building a group home, which may be another option, and it was something that the Department of Justice proposed two or three years ago to replace Dene K'onia with in Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so is the Minister saying that if the group home facility had been built in Hay River, that we would have an open custody facility operating in Hay River today? Because I look at the young offenders at Dene K'onia and it's a very similar layout and building type to any group home that I've ever seen. So when the Minister brings that up, is it to say that if they had built that facility that it would be open and operating today, and that with Dene K'onia we would not have seen the complete loss of this facility and these jobs in Hay River? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, that wasn't the intent when I said that. I have no way of knowing what might have happened if there were different facilities in place. We've worked entirely on what was in place. My point was that a group home is not an expensive facility to build. It doesn't need to have security. It's basically a family home type of setting. So it is something that isn't expensive to add to the inventory if it's ever needed, in comparison to a facility like the open custody facility we have here in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement today I talked about the winter road in the Sahtu, the goat road we have up in the Sahtu. I think I'm going to ask some questions to the Minister. The Minister is aware of the concerns. He was in the Sahtu several times and has seen the road conditions. An official of his office made a commitment at a public meeting in the Sahtu several weeks ago, to travel that winter road and to make an assessment of the conditions. My question is for the Minister of Transportation. Will the Minister please provide the results of the recent assessment of the winter road in the Sahtu? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to make it clear that we don't provide funding for goat trails. We do, however, maintain the Mackenzie Valley winter road, and there has been concern raised over the section from Tulita to Norman Wells. We did have a number of meetings over the last while with the MLA and also with the community of Norman Wells, and we've had some written correspondence over the issue. We have looked at the condition of the road. We realize that we do not have the same level of maintenance and investment in this road as we had when we partnered up with industry for the last couple of years. We continue to do so in other sections. The Wrigley to Tulita road we have industry investing dollars there, and it has brought the road to a higher standard than we normally would maintain it; and also from Norman Wells to Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. The conditions are a lot better than they normally are. We have increased our maintenance. We have looked at the road and we have decided that we should increase the maintenance on this road. We're also reviewing our plans in terms of if our funding allocation for this section is still adequate, considering we don't have a key player or industry investing in this section anymore. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister touched on a key point of our winter roads and I hope that our goat road does become an acceptable highway system in the Northwest Territories. But the industry has used our winter roads quite a bit and, as you know, Mr. Speaker, It takes between 80 and 90 truckloads to haul a rig here and that we need to get the industry involved. I want to ask the Minister if he could please

explain why the department is unable to reach an agreement with the industry, thus leaving the GNWT solely responsible for the cost of maintenance of the road even though it's being used a lot by industry. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, we do have discussions with industry on a regular basis. We have had a number of discussions over this past winter and previous winters but, at the end of the day, we cannot force industry to invest in a road that they're not likely to use. In this case, the road from Tulita to Norman Wells is not one that industry felt they were going to be using for the majority of the rig moves. A lot of the rigs were moved over last winter into Norman Wells or over the summer on the barging system. So there was no requirement for them to invest money and upgrade this road, so it fell under our responsibility to maintain this road with our dollars that were budgeted.

Again, we have looked at a number of initiatives to see if we can improve the safety factors on this road. After several discussions with the people in the communities of Tulita, Norman Wells and the people of the Sahtu, we have allocated and budgeted for signs. We're putting a number of signs on that road. I believe the number is 650 signs that we're going to be putting up and are putting up as we speak to improve the safety factor. We're also setting up a series of meetings and we're going to be unveiling or having discussions about the possibility of instituting a speed limit on that road to improve the safety factor. We have also increased our highway patrols into that area and we continue to do so.

There are a number of initiatives that we have provided for this section of road. If there is still a concern regarding the condition, I want to assure the Member that we are looking at the allocated maintenance budget for this road. However, upon our inspections -- and we do them regularly; our highway superintendent performs them regularly -- they tell us the road is safe, provided you drive at a safe speed limit and you obey all the signs that are being put up right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Holy cow!

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the phone call I received this afternoon said that motorists are going about 20 kilometres an hour on the roads in the Sahtu. That's how bad they are. Also, the safety, Mr. Speaker, is a concern because I lost a close personal friend on that road several years ago with regard to the safety. I want to ask the Minister what he will do to ensure some type of negotiations for partnerships with industry for next year, to ensure there is much done to improve the winter roads in the Sahtu. I know you're not able to force industry, but I think if you can assure the people in the Sahtu that some sort of partnership can be formed with them to ensure that the safety and conditions of the road are just like any other road in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.