Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my statement and questions in the House yesterday pertaining to the closure of the remand services at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River. Mr. Speaker, many of the responses I received from the Minister create more questions.
In reference to the occupancy number of 1.5 inmates per month in remand that was provided, the Minister indicated that this reflects inmates from Hay River and the Hay River Reserve only. SMCC services the South Slave communities of Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Fort Resolution, Enterprise, Fort Providence, Kakisa, Fort Liard, Fort Wrigley, Nahanni Butte, Jean Marie River, Trout Lake and Lutselk'e. That's why it's called the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. If it were the Hay River Correctional Centre, providing stats for Hay River only would be completely understandable.
As to their being no extraordinary additional cost associated with holding remand inmates in cells in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker, the cost of transporting and escorting prisoners is an extra cost. Again, that additional cost should not only be for inmates from Hay River. It should include the difference between the cost to transport to Yellowknife versus Hay River for remand inmates from every one of the communities that SMCC currently services.
In addition, when calculating the savings of $400,000, if there is a human resource cost in Hay River, you have to account for the cost of corrections workers in Yellowknife as well. It's wrong to say it costs this much in Hay River and it costs nothing in Yellowknife, except for extra food, unless we are expecting these inmates to look after themselves. Also to the cost of savings, the Minister indicated the cost of transporting the prisoners is absorbed by the RCMP. When asked how much it would cost the RCMP, the Minister said it's included in their budget for their contract. I sure hope that contract was revised to reflect these extra activity and travel costs. My worst fear, Mr. Speaker, is that the Hay River detachment will be devoting extraordinary financial resources and man-hours to transport inmates to the detriment of policing services in Hay River.
Mr. Speaker, I am thoroughly convinced that the removal of remand services at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre is an ill-conceived plan that will result in additional cost, an inconvenience to inmates and their families and unwarranted centralization of services in Yellowknife and the secondary effect of diminishing the quality of police services in Hay River.
Since these supposed savings were going to accrue by attrition and not by a set date of April 1st, I would ask the Minister to carefully reconsider this initiative. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement, please.