Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to get back to this, but if it's $180 a day per federal inmate, that money does not go to corrections, the expenditure of corrections. It comes back to the Government of the Northwest Territories into general revenue. So we just pay the price out of the allotted corrections budget and you never see the real money that's flowing through from the federal government. That's what I am getting at. Why doesn't it flow through? Why isn't there a better accounting of how that money flows through back to corrections and back to the Department of Justice?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Chairman, I guess the money to house the inmates is built into our appropriation that you vote on in this House every year. If we didn't have those federal inmates, then we would probably have a revenue shortfall and have to go back for additional funds. So I understand what the Member is saying in that it is the government that benefits through this arrangement, it's the government that gets these funds, but really it's all the money in all of these departments is government money and whether we take it directly to the Department of Justice or move it over from general revenues into department budgets annually, I think it still achieves the same ends. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I won't keep on this much longer, but how does the Department of Justice calculate what it's going to need on a year-to-year basis if the numbers or levels of federal inmates might change? From a budgeting perspective, do you just ballpark a number of federal inmates and try to get a budget that's close to that? Is that how it works? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The largest component, obviously, for running our facilities is the lights have to be on, and the heat has to be on, it doesn't matter essentially how many inmates we have, whether we are at 90 percent capacity or 100. Staffing is a huge amount of the cost that we incur and, again, there is very little difference between whether it's 80, 90 or 100 percent capacity in terms of our staffing requirements. So that's how we are able to budget and it is reconciled each year. If we were to lapse money, we would turn it back and if we needed additional money, we would go to FMB with a submission. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Minister for that. I guess in the future, it would be nice if you could have a work performed on behalf of others component to the budgeting exercise to show exactly how much money was coming back from the federal government on a year-to-year basis. If that can't happen, I know there are probably reasons why it can't happen and that's the way it is. I would like to see it happen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I understand what the Member is looking for and we do have the rollup number in aggregate in the revenue summary, so you can see what we are anticipating we will get from this arrangement, but we can provide more breakdown in terms of how many inmates that would be, what the per diems are and those kinds of things. We will certainly provide that information to committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Information item, work performed on behalf of others, Mr. Yakeleya.

On that point there, Mr. Chairman, would the wilderness camps be in the same situation as how you deal with the federal government in terms of the costing? So when you have wilderness camps, would you pick them, or are you going to say the lights have to be on 24 hours, you have to have wood there, no matter what the capacity, are you going to nickel and dime them on the programs also? I am not too sure. Is this going to be similar to camps for corrections services? Thank you.

I understand Mr. Yakeleya is talking about wilderness camps, but we don't have it on the information item at the present time. Mr. Bell, would you like to make a quick comment?

Sure, Mr. Chairman, just to say that I hope we are not nickel and diming our operator. That isn't the intent. The model, as we see it, will provide and pay a fee or per diem to the operator on a daily rate. From that amount, they will have to cover their expenses. So if they decide that they can save money in certain areas, that would be more money in their pocket, I would suggest. But they do have to provide a basic level of service. They have to run the facilities. Obviously, we are not standing there suggesting that they turn the lights on or off. That's how we can possibly hope to administer one of these contracts out on the land. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Yakeleya, in terms of 4-76 to 4-79.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me to get that question in, Mr. Chairman. I was picking up on what Mr. Ramsay was talking about with correction services. I thought I would throw that question in. Thanks for allowing me do that. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for giving me comfort on this program. I am going to leave it at that. I think I am going to call it quits. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Information item, work performed on behalf of others, $1.244 million.

Can we go back to page 7-7? Is everybody there?

Department summary, operations expenditure summary, $83.800 million.