Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to clarify. I just wanted to take a moment to look at the line item on grants and contributions that lists $179,000. This number is in reference to, I guess, on-the-land programs, in other words we call them wilderness camps and in this case there’s an
elders’ program as well. We know, as a committee, that wilderness camps have been on the radar for the department for some time. We know that we haven’t had many in existence probably for about two years. The last two that we had of value was the Kozo Lake adult camp and the Sahtu elders’ camp. We know those are no longer in activity.
We know that really these wilderness camps don’t represent a direct cost-savings opportunity for our NWT justice system partly because of the ratio of staff to inmates is quite a bit higher and the fact that they need more program development. We know that. We know that the cost savings in the end has more to do with the success of reducing recidivism at the end of the program, so we know there’s a high level of investment upfront and, hopefully, high rewards near the end. We know that in the operation of those two wilderness camps, safety was a definite issue. There were some issues regarding safety mechanisms for the inmates and the staff.
What has the department done to reflect on what we’ve learned from these camps to improve those areas of safety? Thank you.