Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not aware of any parents having been taken to court because their children were not in school.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Many times in this House we have discussed the importance of languages to all northerners. The diversity of official languages recognized in the Northwest Territories makes us unique in Canada.

During March we celebrate the value and importance of languages to our northern life. March is:

Aboriginal Languages Month

March 6th to 20th Les Rendez-vous de la Francophonie celebrates Francophone culture

March 20th is International Francophonie Day

The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to the support of all our official languages and this is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There will be the planning process that will involve the architects, typical of any capital project that’s going forward in the Northwest Territories, whether it’s a school or a hospital. Will there be a consultation process? It’s not intended to go out and consult all across the Northwest Territories for what the building will look like, no more than was done for this building. The process is one that we will try and do economically, which means we will find out from studies what space is needed and how to best accommodate that in the most economic fashion. Thank you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a democratic system, as the Member is aware, the courts are an independent leg of the governance process. So we have the government, the Assembly and the courts. It’s a responsibility of the government to support the courts with adequate fiscal resources to conduct their business and adequate physical space to conduct their business. So we are going to follow through on that requirement. Mr. Speaker, when Public Works and Services did their assessment, they advised us that the net present value of leasing equivalent space in the Territories was in the order of $60...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, where we’ve seen significant changes in project costs have been through the construction management process and this government is not prepared to undertake that process for this building. We are going to get the full set of plans done and then go out to public tender. Once we have the results in, we will award the contract. That way you know what the cost of the building is going to be. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The on-the-land program that the Member asks about, a judge can’t sentence an offender to go to this kind of program. It has to be a situation where the offender chooses. They can only go if they are already ready for a temporary absence. They have to be approved for temporary absence from a secure facility to be sent to one of these facilities. Basically, they have to have concluded one-sixth of their sentence and be judged to be a good security risk before they can be sent out to them, because they’re not prisons. There are no fences and inmates are using firearms...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I have told this House, I think it would be nice if we could have detachments in every community. Certainly it’s something that I would like to see, but, to this point, the government hasn’t been able to afford to proceed that way.

For instance, in Sachs, as I said this afternoon, I think there’s a strong argument to be made for sovereignty as well, making sure that Canada has some way of flying the flag. I think it’s important to have RCMP in communities, not only for community safety but for a range of reasons. We would certainly like to be able to do it, but I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of any tie-in to the federal program. I’ll have to look into that. The Member asked if I would look into it. The answer is yes, I will.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There isn’t a simple, quick answer to the question when it is put that way. As Mr. Hawkins pointed out, there is a spin-off effect when you cut jobs in a community, so there is that side of it that does have an impact on employment and the overall economy of the town when you reduce jobs.

In terms of the direct impact on prisoners who are in remand, we have, typically, in the range of, over the last three years, about 66 people who have been placed in that facility from the South Slave per year. So there are about 66 on average that have gone in over the past little...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m aware of the recommendation that’s been made by the Standing Committee on Social Programs and I have no doubt that FMBS will consider that recommendation. I can’t say anything else besides that, Mr. Chairman.