Thank you, Madam Chair. We're spending 30 -- about $40 million on corrections here under -- can I just get an explanation of what the difference between community corrections is and corrections administration and facilities? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. So we have probation services. We have the correctional facilities. And we have corrections administration. So for some description of those, I can ask Mr. Bancroft. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Bancroft.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. During I believe it was the capital budget, we were talking, and our corrections are at an all-time low. Part of this is, we suspect, due to COVID and the courts have been shut down but also just a number of other factors. I was just wondering if the Minister had an update of whether we're seeing any trends that the number of inmates is going to go back up? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. Since the last update I gave the House, the number has remained relatively stagnant. The last number I saw last week was somewhere around 75 inmates in the entire system. I suspect it's somewhere close to that. It's between 75 and 80 today. We did -- you know, the idea of -- the discussion around is this a trend; is this something that we can expect to see for years to come or will we see numbers go back up, is something that we are looking into. It wasn't that long ago when all the correctional facilities were full - busting at the seams - and now we have the exact opposite issue.

So no one wants to make rash decisions about what we're doing, how we're moving forward, because this is a relatively short time period that we're looking at where we've seen these low numbers. But the department has put together a working group to examine the numbers and try and determine why is this happening. There's assumptions about why it's happening but we need to know why it's happening and go from there. So I'm not sure if the deputy minister has anything to add. Yeah, I can hand it over to her. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Doolittle.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was wondering if we could get a breakdown of how many would be in the Hay River men's facility, Fort Smith men's facility, and North Slave men's facility. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. Yes, I can get that for the Member momentarily here.

So in NSCC, there are 53. SMCC, nine. FSCC female, four. And FSCC male, there are eight. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'll just make some comments here.

You know, Scotland -- I'm going to step out a little. Scotland presented -- passed a presumption of short sentences of three months. They just said it didn't make it sense to jail people for that long. They lose employment. They lose housing. And that was so successful they actually made it for a sentence of less than a year. They just don't put people in jail for less than a year. They use probation, alternative measures, treatment, whatever else. And I think, you know, if we did that we would have no one left in prison. Anyone over two years in the Northwest Territories goes to federal prison. And I'll just note when we go back to the community justice committees, I just really believe, when I look at the $40 million we're spending on corrections, with a concerted effort we could put that into diversion and we could basically empty out our jails and be leaders in this. So I know we're doing a review of the numbers and what they look like post-COVID but I think -- and I know we got some great work doing -- for government renewal, but I really think that the entire justice system and our spending needs a review here, especially because very serious offences are dealt with by the feds. They're dealt with by federal corrections. But I just -- I question whether the 50 million or so dollars being spent in this, the last two sections, is at all accomplishing what we want. So I'll leave that as a comment for the Minister as these various reviews go forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. So the majority of the people in the facilities are remanded. So they haven't been sentenced. So there was -- unless no one gets remanded, then we would still have a requirement for a facility. And I hear what the Member is saying as well.

There's also consideration about victims. Sometimes a victim does want whoever victimized them to not victimize them for at least a short period of time. And there are serious concerns about just, you know, not remanding anyone. But that being said, I hear the Member's concerns, and I think he's an idealist and that's -- we need some idealists always bringing those ideas forward. And I think that I would like to keep the numbers low, the lower the better. So I will continue to work down that path, and I think that that desire is shared by the department as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions under corrections? Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, again, we've got, like, three activities for almost $40 million. I'm sure the Minister will work towards getting a better breakdown of this in the future.

But I want to ask about the community advisory boards that were supposed to be set up for correctional facilities and whether they're indeed in place now and are there any costs associated with that? And I'm not opposed to costs associated with that. I think these serve a useful purpose, and they were, you know, built into the new legislation. So if I could get some details from the Minister. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. So the advisory boards that the Member is speaking about, they were -- they came into existence, I believe October 1st under the new -- when the new Corrections Act came into force.

We advertised for applicants. We received, unfortunately, very few, and so we extended the application period and we enlisted the MLAs to try and -- to help us get the word out and, you know, talk to interested people. I can ask the deputy minister for some information on where we are with that and potentially any costs associated. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Doolittle.