Thank you, Mr. Chair. There isn't a simple, quick answer to the question when it is put that way. As Mr. Hawkins pointed out, there is a spin-off effect when you cut jobs in a community, so there is that side of it that does have an impact on employment and the overall economy of the town when you reduce jobs.
In terms of the direct impact on prisoners who are in remand, we have, typically, in the range of, over the last three years, about 66 people who have been placed in that facility from the South Slave per year. So there are about 66 on average that have gone in over the past little while. The warden just advised us that, in his experience, 40 to 50 percent of that group could still be housed in the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. They wouldn't necessarily be housed in those separate cells. They would be classified as such little risk that they wouldn't have to have 24/7 supervision. They would be classified as the same as the balance of the offenders who aren't watched 24/7, but have occasional supervision as the correctional officers rotate through the building. So we are talking about somewhere between half to 60 percent of that 66 that would wind up coming to Yellowknife for the services of remand.
In terms of what our remand clients receive, they receive significantly less programming usually than inmates in the general population, simply because it is not known how long you are going to have them in there. They don't tend to get started in programs that may have a longer length of time, but that is true whether they are in North Slave or South Mackenzie. So the difference would be that, for that 50 to 60 percent, they would be out there from Fort Resolution; they would clearly be farther away from their friends and family. If they are from Hay River and were judged to be that 50 to 60 percent that couldn't stay, they would now come to the North Slave. Obviously, they are farther away from their friends and family as well. So there would be fewer visits with their friends and family.
In terms of services that they would receive, they are pretty much the same in both facilities.