Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that explanation and understanding these cuts. I know it's a hard decision to dismiss people, having done that myself. But on the flip side here, it seems that the inmate capacity is sitting at 44 percent, which is good news. So it tells me that the incarceration rate or the occupancy is down. So therefore, is there plans to reduce the staff of that administration to house -- or the administration, the government employees, to reduce because of the reduction of the inmate capacity at 44 percent? Do we need all the employees still working? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And that's what this reduction is reflective of, the fact that we no longer need all of that capacity in the system. The South Mackenzie Correctional Facility -- or correctional centre is actually at a lower capacity, but it is something unique that we do not want to get rid of at this point given that it is an initiative that is in line with our goal of addressing the effects of trauma. The South Mackenzie Correctional Centre is piloting a therapeutic model where inmates are actually residents, not inmates, and we attempt to help them gain the tools to stop them from coming back into the correctional centre. And so, essentially, it's the closest thing to a government-run wellness centre that I would say we have here in the territory, and we want to ensure that we give that facility the best chance at success. And so we are continuing with that. So we are making some changes to reduce our capacity given the reduced numbers, and that's reflected here. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It seems, you know, from past experiences there, we -- where there's a lost opportunity, another one's created. So we have an emerging willingness for rehabilitation. So there's going to be staff opportunities for the emerging counselling for drugs, as we discussed here the last number of days, more specifically yesterday, on the increased activity of the drug trade. So to minimize that demand through counsellors and those types of positions would the 30 position PY, in this case, you got 17 -- 15 and 17 PYs here. Is there some -- I don't know, maybe some of the staff members are approaching retirement so maybe we can retain those PYs for the emerging drug rehabilitation that I'm hoping some -- I'm hoping, let's say the Sahtu for example, if we have on-the-land treatment centres similar to the other treatment centres or the other campsites there in -- out on-the-land campsites there in Inuvik, if we have those types of trade staffs or professions within this department to help support other regions on drug rehabilitation and counselling. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you for that. And so we have the other facilities in the territory. So there's still a women's correctional facility in Fort Smith. There's South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River. And there is North Slave Correctional Centre in Yellowknife. And there are vacancies in those units. And the impacted employees, the affected employees, will have first dibs essentially on those jobs. And we have paused hiring until after this budget to ensure that those positions remain open for those individuals. As well, I will note that correctional officers are skilled workers. They go through extensive training and continuous training and so those skills are transferrable to other areas as well. And I'm confident that we'll be able to find other positions for them. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that reply. I'm glad to see that there's some transitional ease or counselling or identification to keep the staff busy in other areas or other departments. And also part of transitioning, if the Minister could add to the transition list, maybe there's other companies out there, such as the security at the mines, that these tradespeople at the correction centre might want to move to if the availability was there. So I thank the Minister for that assistance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Next on the list I have is Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on the subject of the Fort Smith centre closing, can the Minister provide more detail on what the plan is with this new wellness centre? Because we haven't seen any concrete details or terms of reference or scoping. So I guess I'd like to know is this just kind of an idea, like hey, maybe we could turn to this, or is it an actual plan that they thought through and are developing? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. We do not have a formal plan. We recognize there is a facility in the community, that the community is taking a hit with the reduction, and we wanted to ensure that we were proactive in raising the possibility of this facility being repurposed. The leadership in the community has been receptive, and I would say that leadership in every single region in the territory has been more than receptive about wanting wellness centres. We've had those requests across the territory. And if that's not what the community wants, then we can work on something else that the community might want. There is -- you know, we've had treatment centres in the Northwest Territories. They come and they go. As a government, we are not getting back into the business of operating treatment centres. But there are opportunities for wellness centres, for aftercare centres, for on-the-land healing. And there is a desire to work with communities to bring those into fruition, and that's what our plan is. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It just -- and I appreciate that, and it was my sense. But it just seems like if we're trying to -- if we're closing this facility because it's under -- they're both underutilized and is going to save money that is going to help us achieve fiscal sustainability, creating an untested wellness centre that would require new staffing, new resources, new special areas of specialty that we don't have -- we don't have efficiencies around, so it would be piloting a lot of these things, it seems like we'd be replacing a less than optimal facility with an even more expensive facility. So is this really the right direction to take this closure? If we -- you know, when assessing if we need the closure at all. Because are we replacing a costly facility with an even costlier facility? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is nothing in this budget about a wellness facility in Fort Smith. There's no line items here. So I'm not replacing the facility with anything. We want to work with the community to access funding to do what the community would like to do and given this opportunity of a facility that does become available. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So of the 15 full-time employees, the 17 relief employees, those are correctional officers who have been trained -- or who have received training as correctional officers, is that correct, Mr. Chair?

I'm going to go back to the Minister.

Thank you. To operate a correctional facility, there are a number of different positions that are required. And so the majority are correctional officers. There are case managers. There are supervisors. There are -- and similar positions. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. How many of those could be redeployed to operate a wellness facility? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.