Mr. Chair, I want to register my comments, I guess, on this one here. It has to do with the North Slave Correctional Centre, the security fencing. The justification for this versus some of our own communities’ needs of correction in the small communities and the types of situations where our justice programs and services, things that we want to do in our small communities are always falling off the table because of no money or we just don’t do it this year, and we have a facility that’s here that the department wants to, for their reasons and their own justifications, put a $2 million fence to keep the inmates in the correctional facility. So you have them in the building, you have them locked up, now you’re going to put a $2 million fence around it to keep them in their further.
We have communities in the Sahtu that looked at integration of inmates. Our inmates in the centres are 90, maybe – the Minister can give me the correct number of Aboriginal inmates – and we want to look at the programs that we would like to
see as infrastructure we would like to see in our communities. The Minister knows; he is well aware. He did the tour in the Sahtu and he heard people. I’m hoping to have some infrastructure for justice camps that some people are asking for. The department always says, well, we don’t do the infrastructure but we will consider, providing that they fall within the guidelines of operations and maintenance. However, you community members look for the infrastructure. Go to the Minister of ITI, maybe, do a business proposal or go to the land corps, but you have to find the money.
We have a number of examples across the North here where organizations had received infrastructure money but also received O and M budgets. I know that we’re going to, under this budget here, spend $2 million next to a residential lot because they’re building there. I question if the lot developers are going to build close to a correctional institution in the North here, that’s a territorial, almost like a federal institution where there are inmates in there that need more rehabilitation, need more work to come out and be a contributing member to society. Well, that’s their way of doing business, but the one I’m talking about is the justice healing camps that do it in the Aboriginal context that they can have camps within the Northwest Territories. There are reasons why some people just need to be locked up, and I get that, but a lot of our people who are in these facilities have gone through it because of alcohol abuse, and I’ve seen that. I’ve seen a lot of people who are in these facilitates are because of the abuse with alcohol or drugs. It’s just plain stupid, getting drunk and doing things. Once they’re sober, they’re pretty good people. They’ve got to be worked on, but the place for that type of situation needs to be dealt with on the land with our own elders to work with them.
So I question the $2 million. Again, the Justice department would give a good case why it needs to build it there. It’s gone through the process; this is not just talking of it. The capital planning process is a process, and I understand that, but again, the lot developer could have thought about this to say, hey, I’m building next to a territorial correctional institution. I’m going to put trailers, I’m going to put houses there, whatever, I’m going to build that lot. To have a sense of security maybe I’ll put a fence up, but maybe that’s not what the requirements are. Then maybe the GNWT now, hey GNWT, I’m going to put some houses up, what are you guys going to do? I mean, I guess if this was done in any of our small communities, I don’t know if this would happen; I’m not too sure. But I’m saying you don’t need to do that. You need to invest in infrastructure for on-the-land programs. Put some money into the buildings. There’s existing camps. There are people who want to get these camps going, but the structure isn’t there to support them. People are not
rich in Good Hope or Tulita or Deline. Look at our unemployment rate; look at the economies there.
So, Minister, I’m just voicing my concern over it. Minister, I get the sense that this budget is going to go through, but I want to voice my concerns for the record. I’m not very pleased with these expenditures and you will definitely give me your reasons, the department’s reason. I’m not a happy camper sitting over here on this one because I don’t see much improvement for on-the-land programs up and down the valley. You know what? We went to the Beaufort-Delta and we went on the river and we went to visit the Inuvik shelter. They’ve got a beautiful facility, a log building in McPherson and Inuvik. They had it, nothing. We have to start giving credence to the Aboriginal culture and their type of restitution, Aboriginal concept of how do we heal our people, otherwise you’re going to keep sending them back here, back in and back out.
So, Minister, I’m speaking as an Aboriginal person coming from a small Aboriginal community. I know there are some people that are just really, really hard and so they keep coming back in. But I know that when people are out on the land, it’s healing, it’s refreshing and there are a lot of things you can do out there for the person. That’s what the elder in Colville Lake has said, Mrs. Kochon. That’s what Colville Lake wants to do, put a program there. We have to clean them out again. Coming from that facility, we have to clean them out when they come back to our community. So I don’t know if the department gets it on the Aboriginal concept of healing and reconciliation, especially with this type of process to have to go through just like cattle. I’m thinking that we could use this $2 million in a better sense and I’m going to leave it at that. I appreciate the Minister hearing me venting and I’d like to see somewhere in the upcoming infrastructure that programs are more supported in the community on the land, because spending $2 million on this program on a fence, you know, this is a fence and that’s a crying shame that we can’t do that in the community. Thank you.
