Madam Chair, over the last four years I’ve heard many Members in this House talk about the programming that they’d like to see in corrections facilities and they talked a lot about culturally specific programs. To consider moving inmates outside of the Northwest Territories

means that those inmates will not have culturally relevant programming.

I believe the mandate of this department is a good mandate and keeping our offenders in the North to benefit from our programs, including our cultural programs, is the way to go. I’m not sure that there would be much support for actually sending our inmates south when they’re not federal inmates. They’re territorial inmates with sentences of two years less a day. It would require a mandate change on the department to consider housing our inmates in the South.