Thank you, Mr. Bromley. My apologies for omitting opening comments. Mr. Abernethy, did you wish to respond?

Thank you, Madam Chair. As a Regular Member in the 16

th

Assembly I

had an opportunity to tour the female facility and also participate in a number of briefings on what the government needed to do with respect to the female facility in Fort Smith. It’s certainly something that’s a priority for the department. We need to get it done. It’s already gone through the design phase. We’re pretty much ready to go. It’s a financial issue. As the Minister of Finance has continually said, we’re strapped for cash right now. Until we have some free room, we have to keep trying to get it onto the books and we will keep doing that as a department. We need to get it done.

Just to follow up, have we done any planning? Do we know what we want to build?

Do we have land lined up? Where are we? How fast can we move once we do get the resources to be able to put in an actual facility?

A planning study has been completed for the proposed territorial women and girls correctional centre in Fort Smith. Land has been selected and I think we're close. We need money. Basically the plan is done, and the land is selected and we’re working with the department now to find out how to get it done, get the facility built.

I’m wondering if we have a design for the facility, if we’ve actually got that. I want to introduce my last one as the Arctic Tern Facility and our youth facility generally. I’m wondering what the plans are. Is there a budget to deal with that situation this year, that facility? Are we going to get rid of it or tear it down? What’s happening with Arctic Tern and what are we doing with our youth offenders in terms of current and long-term planning?

With respect to the future facility in Fort Smith, the planning study has been done, and it includes a needs analysis and operational plan, a facility program and a schematic design. We’ve already got that done. A rough cost-estimate of Class C. So we’re ready to go. When some money identifies, we’ll be standing in the line, asking for those dollars for that facility.

With respect to the Arctic Tern facility in Inuvik, a report came out in the 16

th

Assembly about the

facility and how it’s not suitable as a corrections facility due to security concerns, doors being able to shut and whatnot. The result of that is the facility has been surplused out of the Department of Justice. It is now a Public Works and Services asset and they will dispose of it accordingly. Most recent reports say the foundation is still an issue, the doors still don’t close and whatnot to meet the standards of a secure correctional facility. That has been given to Public Works and Services.

And the people? The young offenders? Have we got a situation figured out for how we’re going to house them? Are we in a holding pattern right now? Are we planning a more permanent facility or program for them?

As per the briefings in the 16

th

Assembly, we’ve moved the youth female

offenders to the North Slave Young Offenders Facility. Currently, there’s only one in there, at the North Slave Young Offenders Facility. One female; sorry. With respect to the future facility in Fort Smith, it will be for both women and female youth.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Are there any other opening comments for the Department of Justice? Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. One particular issue is the investment in the Fort Smith

program. I don’t say this in the context of I don’t think the program shouldn’t be expanded or better accommodated. I’m just wondering about the timing of this particular investment with regard to, obviously, the recent passage of Bill C-10. Shouldn’t the department be looking more towards a longer strategy, rather than trying to fix things for the short term? It would make sense, in my view, that the future programming, which is a significant unknown right now, should be addressed first.

I guess the question to the Minister would be: Why wouldn’t the department pause at this second to re-evaluate its plan and see how to accommodate properly for the future? I hate to see money being spent on a useless program that is not needed in about a year or two years, so we’ve wasted the money. That’s the type of evaluation and consideration I’m asking for.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m going to go to Ms. Bronwyn Watters for some of that answer. To start off with, the planning that is being done for the facility in Fort Smith, the women’s facility does include a significantly larger capacity to deal with future trends that have been predicted within the department. I’ll go to Ms. Bronwyn Watters for a more comprehensive answer.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Watters.

Thank you, Ms. Watters. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On a separate issue, I think I heard the Minister say that there was one female inmate at this particular time within the custody services under the GNWT. Does the department have an estimate as to what one inmate costs the system in the context of full costing? At the same time I’d like to know to what Nunavut would pay the Northwest Territories for us to house one inmate in our facility. If I could get that breakdown between the two numbers.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have one female youth in custody in the North at the youth facility here in Yellowknife. We have 11 female adults in custody as well. With respect to the cost for Nunavut to house somebody in one of our facilities, I’m going to go to Ms. Watters for that.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Watters.

Thank you, Ms. Watters. I think the question was: What would it cost for us to send somebody to Nunavut to be housed? Ms. Watters. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would maybe appreciate if I could probably take a second stab at it, rather than interpretation. I’d like to know the cost Nunavut would pay us to house one inmate. If they want to provide that, I’d like to start with that particular fee.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Watters.