Members considered the Draft Main Estimates for the Department of Justice on April 10, 2008. Committee would like to thank the Minister and his officials for appearing before the committee.

The committee noted expenditures of $91.976 million for operations expense and $1.69 million to be spent in capital projects for the fiscal year 2008–2009. Committee members offer the following comments on issues arising out of the review of the 2008–2009 Main Estimates.

Proposed Correctional Facilities and Renovations

Members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs could not reconcile closing the Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility in Inuvik, a facility that only opened in 2002, while constructing a new territorial women’s correctional facility in Fort Smith. The committee does not dispute that the current Territorial Women’s Correctional Centre in Fort Smith is not suitable; it’s past its useful service life and needs to be replaced.

The committee also does not dispute that the Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility has structural issues related to its foundation that may prove to be insurmountable and render the facility unsuitable for continued use as a correctional facility. It is also recognized that the facility has been severely underutilized since it opened because of changes in the way youth are sentenced. However, in the absence of an engineer’s report that clearly outlines costs, options and potential remediation solutions for the foundation issues, it would be irresponsible for the committee to endorse a plan that essentially writes off a purpose-built government asset like the Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility. The Minister has informed committee that such an engineering report will be completed sometime this summer. Should that report bear out the department’s assertion that it may be uneconomical or unsafe for the Arctic Tern facility to continue as a correctional facility, the committee is prepared to support a supplementary appropriation for planning the replacement of the territorial women’s correctional facility.

This was not the reasoning behind the recommendation made by the committee to the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board to eliminate the $300,000 in the infrastructure plans for the planning and replacement of the women’s correctional centre. The recommendation to delete was rejected by the FMB on the advice of the Department of Justice. If it is economically feasible and safe to continue using the Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility as a correctional facility, committee believes the department will have to rationalize the construction of a new correctional facility. Options like renovating the River Ridge facility or Arctic Tern facility for use as a women’s correctional centre, or maybe just renovating the River Ridge facility for use as a women’s correctional centre and moving the current River Ridge cognitive program to Inuvik, or a combination of using Arctic Tern as a women’s facility and building a smaller facility in Fort Smith to address capacity issues, needs to be examined.

In the minds of committee members it is apparent that the department is committed to the closure of the Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility as the easiest way to meet a significant portion of its contribution to the reduction exercise. Whatever happens, there are still going to be ongoing operations and maintenance costs and, in the worst case scenario, demolition costs for the Government of the NWT. The cost may not be borne by the Department of Justice, but it still would be a cost to the government.

Unlike the Department of Justice, the Standing Committee on Social Programs is not prepared to write off a $16 million purpose-built facility until it is patently clear that this is our only option. Nor are we prepared to support the construction of a

similarly priced facility until this determination has to be made.

Recommendation

The committee recommends that $320,000 for the Territorial Women’s Correctional Centre be deleted from the Infrastructure Acquisition plans for the Department of Justice.

Recommendation

The standing committee recommends that $613,000 be added to the operations budget for Corrections and Community Justice to continue operation of the Arctic Tern Young Offenders Facility.

Recommendation

The standing committee recommends that the Department of Justice undertake a facility review that will outline the present condition of existing correctional facilities and of the future space requirement for the correctional system.

At this time, Mr. Chairman, I would like to hand it over to my colleague Mr. Abernethy to continue.