Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to speak to the rationale for the deletion of this particular activity. The Social Programs Committee discussed Community Justice and Corrections and facilities at great length during the department presentation, and afterwards when we discussed how we had viewed that presentation. At this point the program committee feels very strongly that this is not the correct time to begin planning a new facility. We don’t know yet whether or not the Arctic Tern facility in Inuvik is suitable for a secure facility for corrections. It’s undergoing a review — an engineering review and an analysis, apparently — at this time. That review will be available to us sometime this summer or this fall, from what we’re given to understand.

The Social Programs Committee feels quite strongly that there needs to be an analysis of all the corrections facilities within the NWT; that there should be consideration for changing any or all facilities and how they’re used, how inmates are housed, which inmates are housed where; that all of those things need to be considered.

We feel that it’s quite possible that…. I should back up a bit and say that the committee certainly does agree that the Territorial Women’s Correctional Centre in Fort Smith definitely needs to be refurbished. It’s an old building, it’s not a secure facility, and it definitely needs to be revamped. However, that said, we don’t feel that closing Arctic Tern, if it’s suitable as a secure facility, is a good solution. That facility can be used in conjunction with all the other facilities in the NWT to house all of our inmates. Just because a facility currently has, for instance, young male offenders doesn’t mean that it necessarily has to stay that way. Our belief is that we need to do an analysis of all the facilities once we know the status of Arctic Tern, and consider with an open mind what can and cannot be done.

It’s entirely possible that we could house senior female offenders in Inuvik and, if there’s not enough space for them there, that we could build a much smaller facility in Fort Smith to house the overrun of senior female offenders in Fort Smith. This is not the time for us to be doing planning to spend some $20 million on a facility in Fort Smith. We need to wait. This planning money could come forward once we know the results of the analysis that’s going on for Arctic Tern. So this is why I’m making this motion; I don’t feel that this is the time to start this planning, and I think we can delete this item and continue to do the planning at a later date.