Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of topics that I would like to offer some comments on. They have to do with court registries, the South Slave remand centre, the North Slave Correctional Centre, community corrections, crime prevention, RCMP policing and the courthouse.
Mr. Chair, court registries; I know that these services were in the books for possible reductions, but I just want to speak again on this more because I've had time to think about it. I know that one of the reasons why there was some suggestion to close the Inuvik office or the Hay River office was because of the difficulty in recruiting and retaining skilled people to do the job. I understand, having been in this field, that this is a skill that needs a lot of training and very little room for error and such. But now that we have decided to keep them open, I think that with the resource development happening in both the North and South, I think that was a wise move. I would like to ask the government and the department to look for ways to provide more training for the people that are there, instead of reducing the office because they can't staff it. I know there are people that are already working there. So I don't want them to misunderstand what I am saying here, but in order to make sure that there are enough resources there, I would like to ask the government to make sure that people that are working there and extra people that might be able to work there get the kind of training and repetition that they must have to remember all the dates and such. So I'm going to ask for some training in that area.
I would also like to state, for the record, that knowing that there is a vacancy in the Inuvik region for a judge, I think it's a Territorial Court judge, I understand that we don't have a say in that, but I would like to think that we have some influence and there are people out there listening who have the power to decide on this. I think that I would like to see the next Territorial Court judge based in Inuvik. I think that was the plan before. I think all these things have to go together. I think if we're going to be a territory, we need to have regional centres and I think north and south if not all regions. But I think this is a basic minimum and the way to keep the services going and have enough workflow to keep the jobs going is to have a judge based there. I'm sure there are ways to do this. I think the judge that was appointed in Hay River was required to be based in Hay River, and I think that the same thing has to be done for the Inuvik region.
The second thing I want to talk about is the South Slave remand centre. I know that this has been a topic of much discussion in the House, in the committees and such, and in the House as well. The first information I heard was when the government was looking for a $20 million cut, we were looking at things that would have minimal impacts on the public and that would have minimum impact on jobs next. At the time this sounded like a feasible thing to do, especially when we were assured that there would be no job cuts or there would be no person losing a job and that it would all be done by attrition and there would be no layoffs. Having had time to revisit this and having had a chance to listen to everything, I would like to reiterate the recommendation made by Social Programs and I would like to confirm my support to reinstate this. I'm doing this on balance. I have listened to the Minister's numbers. I think there are numbers there and money to be saved, but it has to be balanced with the future needs and I'm going to speak in support of reinstating it for the future. I think if the service level is not there now, I believe that it will be there in the future. For the money that we're going to save, I think you could always make equally convincing arguments to go on the other side. I think that the Minister had numbers to make that argument, but I think there are more things to consider, especially in light of the fact that the government is closing down Dene K'onia and we have the responsibility and right to consider the overall impact of one budget and this probably was too much in one community. So I would like to state that for the record.
With respect to the North Slave Correctional Centre, I just want to state that everything I'm hearing from there is good. I have run into people that work there, people that used to call me last summer and last fall about their concerns. Some of them are very, very long-term residents, some of them have worked there for many, many years in the corrections systems and most of them had never really called me on anything before and they were very, very concerned about what was going on there. The same people are telling me that things are better. Changes are being done, people are more relaxed. There is a lot less overtime and stress and such. So I'm happy with that and I would like to ask the Minister to continue to implement the human resource plan and hopefully we would continue to make improvements and everyone will be happier.
The next issues are community corrections and crime prevention. I know that Members would like to see a lot more resources put into this and I don't disagree with that, but I would like to see more focus on the part of the government on crime prevention. I talked about the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition; I said this is a group of people who just got tired of seeing all this crime going on and drug problems and everything that their kids and their families are affected by. They rose up and they wanted to do something, and I know there are groups all over the Territories who are doing this and I really think that government has to stand ready to react to that.
I know that sort of program is not available, or not as much in Justice but, in the future, I would like to see the Minister and the department come with a pot of money that would be able to be used for that. There are increases in crime happening everywhere. The government can't do everything, they can't be everywhere for everybody. But if there are community groups that rise up and say, we want to do this and we will volunteer and we will patrol the streets and we will find out where these crimes are happening and we want to do something to prevent crime, there should be as much resources, or somewhere near as much resources, as there are for community corrections.
We spend so much money correcting after people commit crimes, rather than trying to prevent. These groups are not asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars, they are asking for $10,000 to $20,000 to help people feel like they are making a difference in their communities. I would like to see a program like that develop from the department.
The last thing is just about the RCMP policing and staffing. I have to say, first of all, that I am very disturbed by reports of abuse of RCMP by our citizens. I think that the RCMP, the department and the government should do more to...I don't know what we can do, but I just have to put on record that it is appalling that our RCMP officers are being attacked, whether on duty or off duty, in doing their job. Anything the government and the RCMP could do to get the people to be more aware of the importance of RCMP officers and the role they play would be better.
Another thing I want to say about this is that I am having a real problem with this Charter thing, or whatever, that's happening that says, unless we can have two RCMP officers in a community, we can't have any at all. That doesn't make any sense to me. I go back to base-level services -- indoor gyms, schools, health centre -- I think right up there has got to be an RCMP officer in every community, a nurse in every community and if it requires two, that is fine. I know that the RCMP and the government have been fighting for a long time to increase the staffing and I know that it has to do with the negotiation with the federal government and I know it has to do with resources and such, but surely with all the money we have, we could commit to having at least two RCMP officers in every one of 33 communities.
That just should be a basic thing, whether the government can find the money within or go to the federal government. I don't know what the rules are. If it is for safety reasons that the RCMP can't work alone, for safety reasons isn't it the right of everybody to have police protection? I would like to see a more aggressive approach on the part of the Minister and the department to make sure that the federal government or somebody understands that in our remote communities, we just have to have that as an essential service.
Mr. Chairman, the last thing I want to say concerns the courthouse, so I don't put my name up for a second time. I know that $41 million seems like a huge amount of money, but I need to state, for the record, that this is something that has been in the plan for 26 years. About 26 years ago when this courthouse was leased, that was supposed to be a temporary measure. It was always understood that we would have a Legislature and the courthouse should have been there back in 1967 when the government moved here.
I understand that this has to do with security reasons; it is not desirable when a victim has to face an offender in the same elevator. It is also not desirable when lawyers have no room to interview their clients; it is not desirable when federal court judges come up and the local judges have to vacate their offices because there is no space. Sooner or later, it's either we pay landlords to provide this service or we make the commitment to put the capital infrastructure so that at the end of the day we own the building. I don't think that in the end we are going to spend any more than what we are already spending. I know it is shocking for the people to know that you would spend $41 million over 20 years or 25 years, whatever the life of this building is, but I think it is really important that we look at this in the business sense and that the headlines don't derail a little bit of logic on this.
I support this totally and I am sure we will have more chances to discuss it. Those are my six issues on Justice and if the Minister wants to respond, I would welcome hearing that. Thank you.