Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I devoted an extraordinary amount of air time during the budget session to the loss of Justice jobs, programs and services in Hay River. It potentially directly impacted a total of 40 jobs. It impacted the open custody young offenders' facility, our court registry and the closure of our remand unit at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre.
I am pleased to recognize that the planned closure of the court registry was reversed. The closure of the remand centre proceeded on April 15th, in spite of a unanimous motion of the Regular Members to reinstate the funding for this service. I will be speaking to the fallout from that decision during this session.
Mr. Speaker, the closure of the young offenders' facility also took effect on April 1st. This caused considerable hardship for many of the workers and their families, as transfers to other communities and other jobs, in some cases, have split families up for the foreseeable future.
On a much happier note, Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that the Minister of Health and Social Services has identified a service which suits the valuable infrastructure of the Dene K'onia Young Offender Facility as a territorial treatment centre for youth. This will go some ways towards mitigating the impact of the losses in Hay River.
In the days ahead, I will be speaking to the issue of the remand closure and the need for our government to examine all and every practical and prudent decentralization initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause