Mahsi, Mr.

Chair. Mr.

Chair, as the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes has indicated, and also other Members, this has been in the books for a number of years. It’s a 1950s building, and it’s due for replacement.

We talk about Arctic Tern facility as well. There have been all kinds of numbers thrown around during our legislation debates. Just for the record, $14 million has been thrown around for Arctic Tern. To set the record straight, it was $6 million when it was built. And also a correction: the closing-down of the programming there is due to the fact that it’s severely underutilized. Last week we had no inmates in the facility; today we have two inmates. So based on that, Mr. Chair, we’re talking about a facility in Fort Smith that we propose to start planning for replacement.

Also, Mr. Chair, I’d just like to highlight that we’ve been going through a lot of motions put forward, and some motions did cost our departments, let’s say — whether it be the Justice Department or other departments that have gone through the committee before — the ten positions that we highlighted earlier. The motion came forward and cut those ten positions. Those ten positions, and there’s one in Inuvik, three in Yellowknife, and one proposed. There are three currently occupied positions affected by the committee-made motion, so really, we just laid off three people from the motion that came forward.

Mr. Chair, I think it’s important to highlight that with this particular motion before us we are in the planning stages. We are looking at options, whether it be at Inuvik or Fort Smith. At Inuvik there are three or four different options we’re working with. We’re not really completely closing down the facility, but it’s based on the actual underutilization. So I just want to make the record straight.

I want to put the options of Arctic Tern on the record. The RCMP detachment is very interested in the area. The municipality of the community of

Inuvik is also interested. The Learning Centre is also interested. So that building will certainly be utilized.

So just to continue to be the effective and efficient government that we stated, we cannot continue operating as it is with Arctic Tern. So we can’t say, “Well, we can’t build in Fort Smith” and have Arctic Tern utilized. The capacity is not really there.

The TWCC, the Territorial Women’s Correctional Centre, has a capacity of 18, and Arctic Tern has 14. So really, when we talk about numbers, there are also inmates down south — female inmates. We want to bring them back to the North. That’s always been our goal. We will continue to do so, Mr. Chair.

So I just want to set the record straight that there’s been a lot of information flowing — inaccurate information and whatnot. We’re just setting the record straight, as indicated earlier, that we are moving forward on planning for the replacement of the correction centre in Fort Smith. And we are dealing with Arctic Tern, as has brought up by Members as part of this motion. So I thought this would be the ideal time to address that as part of the motion as well.

So at this time, Mr. Chair, thanks for the opportunity to speak on this matter. Mahsi.