The Member is correct. We’re well aware of the 50th anniversary that the

good town of Inuvik is going to celebrate. The department and I have been working on the safety mechanisms on the Dempster Highway in terms of the dust control, in terms of the extra work that needs to happen. I’m looking forward to sitting down with the department some time in a short while in terms of getting an update as to what recommendations are going to be in place in the future to ensure the travelling public does experience a safe drive on our roads in terms of them coming from all places, and especially driving on the Dempster to Inuvik.

As I mentioned in my statement, I think the last time the Minister was up there, we spotted five graders on the road. It’s possible that if the Minister or the superintendent of highways would drive that highway, maybe we’ll see some attention by way of seeing graders on the road. Would the Minister commit himself or his superintendent to actually physically drive that highway to see for yourself exactly the condition of that road, and maybe we’ll see something get done to it.

I certainly look forward to driving the Dempster Highway sometime this year. I want to reassure the Member that over the years of the Dempster Highway we have spent a great number of dollars in terms of investing, in terms of reconstructing, upgrading the road. We have done a lot of work, and we’ll continue to do work in the future. I will assure the Member that the staff at the regional office takes extra precaution and care in terms of ensuring that the public do experience safe driving on the Dempster Highway.

I’d like to ask the Minister if they have statistics in regard to the number of accidents and deaths that have occurred on our gravel highways. I mentioned Highway No. 7 and Highway No. 8 and also Highway No. 6. I’d like to ask the Minister: have you done a comparison of gravel highways and highways that have hardtop by way of calcium? I’d like to ask the Minister if he has that detail, and if not, can he get it to me.

We keep that every year. I will be glad to share the information with the Member. I don’t have the detail in front of me. What

I know from the information I have read on the Dempster Highway is that we have actually lowered the accident rates on that road since we started the reconstruction from the Yukon border to the town of Inuvik.

Thank you, Mr.

Yakeleya. Oral

questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today during my Member’s statement I talked about bringing hope and inspiration back to a disadvantaged group. That group I was talking about is the Council of Persons with Disabilities. To be absolutely clear, not every person with a disability requires extra help. They are able to get out there and get gainful employment, actually, through the regular process. There are programs out there, as I talked about the EmployABILITY for persons with disabilities, that help people with disabilities to get jobs.

My questions are for the Minister of Human Resources. My issue really comes down to this: would the Minister be willing to look at setting up a small fund that departments can draw upon to make sure they can get out to hire people with disabilities, to make sure they get gainful employment and help bring back some of that quality of life?

Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

The hiring of people with disabilities is a priority for this government, and certainly we will be prepared to look at all avenues where we can increase their representation.

That was an excellent answer. I would hope that his next answer will include “yes” and will look at the $50,000 suggested by the Member. My question to the Minister is: would he look at potentially setting up a pool of money, such as maybe $50,000, to get something started as a potential pool that departments can draw from to use to fund people in this category?

As the hiring of people with disabilities is a priority for this government, this is certainly an area that we will put additional resources to. I don’t know if we would want to limit ourselves to $50,000. As a department we have identified a lead person to deal with the hiring of people with disabilities, and I will be meeting with the president of the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities later this week.

May I be the last person to put a limit on that pool of funds for this Minister, but I was only trying to talk about seed money. If this Minister of Human Resources wants to put in more money, he’s certainly welcome to it. My question is: was that a commitment to making sure that this would happen, and can we expect something in the near future?

As the Member knows, the delegated responsibility for staffing rests with the deputy ministers and their departments. Certainly I’ll be working with all departments to ensure that we continue to improve our performance in the hiring of disabled people within the public service.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. Final

supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

We seem to get these great answers, and I want to thank the Minister for these great answers, but we just seem to be really short of that commitment and excitement.

Would the Minister be willing to step up the pressure on all departments to make sure that they increase their percentage of people within their department who they hire who have disabilities? Will he take that commitment a little further and work a little harder with it?

Yes, we are committed to achieving that. We will be starting that with a meeting with the president of the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. The

honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As in my Member’s statement today, I have questions about the proposed women’s correctional facility for Fort Smith. So far all that’s been identified in the budget was money for planning. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for Justice what is wrong with the facility that we have now, how many women does it accommodate, and what kind of occupancy has been historic over the last few years?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Three questions there. Minister, you can answer one or all three, if you would like. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr.

Speaker.

Certainly this facility that we’re referring to was before Committee of the Whole, this facility in Fort Smith. The building itself is from the 1950s and holds minimal security. Those inmates with high

risk are usually sent to RCMP cells, or most of them are sent south. We certainly want to keep them in the North. That was part of the plan. The capacity of that facility is 18 inmates. I don’t have the to-date record, but from April we had 12 inmates in there and some are still down south. If we bring those inmates from down south that will certainly fill up the capacity. There again we don’t have the security. That’s maximum security at the corrections.

I’d like to ask the Minister: how many inmates would the new facility propose to hold and at what price?

Part of the plan that was brought forward was to have a newer facility that would have the maximum security to allow those inmates that are down south as we currently speak. Part of the proposal is to have those inmates…. With the numbers of inmates that we have down south, if we bring them back, we’ll be at full capacity. Right now we’re talking about 18 inmates in that facility.

So if I understand correctly, the current facility will hold 18 inmates and the proposed new facility would hold 18 inmates but have a greater security capacity. At what projected cost and what classification of estimates would the new facility be projected at?

We were proposing $320,000 for the planning stages, but that’s been part of the deletion. At the same time, there were different phases, phase 1 and phase 2. I don’t have the actual number with me right now, but I can certainly provide what was budgeted for the new facility. Now we have to look at options, because the number for planning has been taken out. If we need to find some internally, it might be difficult at this time within the Justice department. Those are options that we need to look at, where we go from here. Certainly I can share that information with the Member.