Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did have a chance to comment on Friday. I do have some further comments for the Minister with respect to a few different items, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I will start with the courthouse.
The perception in the communities I represent is they are very concerned that such a huge capital investment is happening in Yellowknife. It looks like we are spending all this money in the capital centre and we are taking away...just because of programming and things that happen in the communities. You take away the regional justice coordinator which has a big impact in the smaller communities like Jean Marie and Trout Lake. So it's very visible.
Throughout the North, people check out the news and they see $40 million being spent in Yellowknife and that's a huge concern. They want to know what the department is doing and why are they spending all this money in Yellowknife. Why can't they be using those resources in the community doing justice programs? So they are very concerned and they asked me to speak about it here today.
So if we can get the department or the Minister to say we hear the needs of the communities and we will start to direct some effort towards that. I don't know why that exists in terms of justice, but that's the initiative that I would like to state here for today. We have this nice new courthouse, and another interesting thing is the court system decided to lengthen the court circuit. I think it's at six weeks now and it's having an impact on the communities. The way it's impacting is the JP court dockets are overflowing. It might have lessened the work for the justice system but, back home in the communities, the JPs are swamped with all these works and they are volunteers. They work until 2:00 a.m. on Wednesdays and they still have to make it to work the next day. They play a huge part in our communities. Maybe at this point, I will thank them for taking the time out to be JPs in the courts and trying to administer local justice. They are actually doing a lot more than they are trained to handle. They are trained to handle full court proceedings and trials and now that's what is actually happening. Particularly in Fort Simpson I hear that because they are actually doing court proceedings. They can handle it and probably welcome the challenge.
I am not sure if there is a backlog in our regular justice system as well. People don't like to see justice delayed too long, because it just allows individuals to keep putting it off. The victim, too, would like to see their needs met, the sooner the better, so they can get on with their lives. The further we drag it out and in a six-week circuit, it doesn't take very long for the issue to be in the courts for six to eight months. It used to be concluded within six months or even four months. Now it just seems to be longer and longer and people are getting concerned about that.
While I am on the courts, Mr. Chairman, one other thing that came up early on in my tenure when I was elected was the issue of translators around the court systems and JP courts. What's really blatant is at one point there was an elderly fellow, and people assume that they speak English once they make an acknowledgement sound. It happened in Health and Social Services. That's why I pursued cross-cultural training because people were insensitive.
What happened was the fellow was an elder. He had an impaired charge and he had a hunting rifle in his truck. Because of the new gun legislation, RCMP arrested the fellow, took him in and took his rifle as well. They said here is a piece of paper. You don't have the right paperwork for it. You don't have your permits in place. We are going to have to destroy your gun, do you understand? He says, "uh huh." He put his X on it. About a week later, he was asking around. He said the cops took my gun. I wonder when they are giving it back. It turns out what he signed was permission for the cops to destroy his gun. He said I didn't tell them to destroy it. The fact is he didn't understand what was before him. They assumed that he didn't need a translator. That is only one instance and there are many other instances that go unreported. People say that happened, but the fact is we have to make more use of translators. We have to be more sensitive in our justice system and say there is going to be a need and it has to be addressed.
I would like to point out that gap to the department. I know at one time, we used to have full-blown translators that traveled into the communities. They probably felt that there wasn't a need for full staff translating positions. I am not sure what their plan is now or how they are addressing those needs. If it has happened once or twice in my communities, I can just imagine what it's like in other regions.
Another thing that concerns me too is I am reading our business plans here and there is a big gap. The targets for affirmative action aren't listed in the business plans. I said before if it's not written down, then it's not a goal or objective. So you are going to have to write these things down, because that's how bureaucrats or staff do their work. That's how they measure themselves. They say I am achieving these things and send it in to their boss. If it's not there, then that's direction that they are not getting. They don't have to do it if it's not there. We pay them well, they are good workers but, like anybody else, they are not mind readers. They have to be given direction and told that affirmative action is important to our government. In fact, we have to have a representative workforce, much like we have a representative elected body. People who work for us should be from the North and northerners.
My last comment is on January 25th I had the opportunity to tour the remand centre in Hay River and see how it operated. I don't see how the savings are going to take place. I was there with the same amount of staff members who were there. I saw the control room and now I really believe the report, that it was there for a reason. People are being put there and previous to that, they put the people in remand and kind of watched them, but then apparently this one lady killed herself. They spend lots of money on it. It's suicide free. We saw the retracting coat hangars and all the round corners, so to speak, Mr. Chairman. But the plan is not to destroy any facilities or take down any walls. We are still going to be there. We are going to have the same staff. I am of that persuasion too. What are we really going to change if we are going to send some to Yellowknife and keep some there? What process are we saving? I am kind of concerned about that, too. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will conclude my comments.