Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not aware of any direct approach that has been made to the casuals on this issue. There may have been some present at the discussions that would have happened with the staff about the proposed staff reductions at the facility, which would have made them aware. I doubt that they have been directly or purposely approached and advised about the potential impact on their employment. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I can’t tell you the amount of those positions that would be vacant at the moment in terms of a dollar figure. Each position has a different dollar figure. I’d have to go through position by position and take a look at what each of them was worth, then add that up. You would also have to take a look at how long they’ve been vacant for, whether or not they’re in the process of being staffed, just where it is in the system of being filled in terms of how long it has been vacant. All that information could be prepared, but it’s not something that’s done easily off the top of our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally I have some good news to report. Although I can’t confirm it, because it’s only in the Canadian Press and we haven’t gotten official word from the government, but we understand that the federal government will scrap the proposal to tax grants for aboriginal college and university students. So it sounds promising. I think the federal government has recognized that aboriginal students are the most underrepresented in terms of success in university and college in Canada and they need the support of the federal government by not taxing. I think it sounds like it’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the Northwest Territories, the RCMP is responsible for transporting prisoners on remand. They often tell you that they try and do it in the most economic way possible. What they will typically do is if they have a member who is going to be traveling, for instance, to Yellowknife for training or administrative purposes, they will have that member accompany the person who is being transported, or to another community. They may come to and from that community. The six-person relief units that we have funded over the course of the last year are to help ensure that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would anticipate completing the plans for the facility and hopefully be ready to go to tender.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of community justice, I would agree with the Member that it would make a lot more sense if we could get community justice committees to do even more than they do. But you know, we’re actually quite lucky in the Northwest Territories. They are very active. We have committees in 30 communities in the Northwest Territories. So we have managed to get them set up and active in pretty well every community in the Northwest Territories. We are going to be, this year, adding $237,000 to make it available to communities that have community justice committees to apply...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, it’s not something that’s being done on a continuous basis at Tl'oondih. They have other programs that they run on a regular basis and they approached us when they had availability of time and the people who could work on the program and we very quickly agreed to take them up on their offer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT offers programs that are available to everybody, whether they’re Metis, aboriginal or non-aboriginal, for adult literacy and basic education. Those courses are offered through the college and in the last year have been offered in 25 of 33 communities. So the government is committing a significant amount of money, somewhere in the area of about $3 million a year for this kind of programming across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The number was, I think, about $49.7 million. It was just under $50 million to build the facility. This facility, when it was presented to Members, was presented as a 40 to 50-year investment in the facility. It was not something that was necessary to have just at that moment to accommodate just the existing prisoners. Hopefully, we are not spending that kind of money on something that is going to be full right off the bat. So did we have to move people here? No, we didn’t have to, but it was one way in which we could save money. That is one of the things we could...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that the capital costs will be spread out over nearly five years, so it wouldn’t be $41 million over a couple of years. There was nothing that was cut from the capital plan in order to put this in this year. In fact, there was a significant increase to the capital plan. A lot of it went to education facilities but, because we are running a surplus in this budget of nearly $49 million, that allows us to increase our investment in capital, because we typically finance 50 percent of our capital from borrowings and 50 percent from money that we have in the...