Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can reveal what is available. I know that, for instance, the FMBS has told us that we can’t reveal all of the numbers because, in many cases, they might indicate a specific person. I will take a look at what can be provided. I don’t think it should be difficult to get that information for the Member, because I believe that we have already provided a good part of this information, or as much as we can, to other Members in this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven’t ever said that we had cost overruns at the North Slave Correctional Centre. The department didn’t seek supplementary funding for the operations. There will have been some money that would have been allocated from one resource to another, whether it was permanent employees to overtime, or permanent employees to casual, it would have been handled through the normal process. The overrun that has been referred to isn’t something that we have characterized as an overrun. We haven’t come to this House and sought supplementary appropriation for it. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The positions on the highway patrol unit are two for Hay River and one for Yellowknife. The other positions, as I understand it, there would be about six positions that would go between Rae and Yellowknife and some other communities. But I believe the Member is most interested in the highway positions. I’d just like to make sure that the Member knows that the RCMP officers who would be dedicated to highway patrols would also have cross-training and specific training in drug interdiction. So there is training that is provided to highway patrol officers to ensure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not inclined to agree to that right now, but it is something…I will double check the figures myself and endeavour to show the Member where we can demonstrate the savings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t say whether there’s going to be any positions added to the North Slave Correctional Centre or whether a request will come forward for additional staff. I haven’t seen the human resources plan. I know the department has been working on one with the assistance of an individual from British Columbia, but I haven’t yet been provided with that report if it has been finished. There have been some recommendations by corrections officers who have worked for the federal system out of Fenbrook Institution in Ontario. They did recommend that we increase some staffing in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am satisfied that the magnitude of savings are there. We are going to take $400,000 less in this year’s budget. That’s what we are talking about. Even if the department was wrong by $50,000, and I don’t think they are, I just picked the $300,000, $400,000 or $500,000 just out of the air. Even if those are the numbers, it will be plus or minus over the $400,000 that we are going to save. It may not be exactly $400,000.

The Member asked about human resources costs. The cost to supervise an inmate at the North Slave Correctional Centre is $38.57 a day. At the South...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can accommodate the prisoners who would be housed in the remand facility in Hay River in the North Slave Correctional Centre. There is room for them. We don’t have to move them here. This is being undertaken as a cost-savings measure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are some variables here too. Mrs. Groenewegen a few days ago gave an example which involved using scheduled aircraft. If all of the Hay River remand prisoners were to use scheduled aircraft with RCMP escorts to appear 2.18 times in front of a judge, then the number would be in the area of $20,000.

However, the RCMP plane also has to be factored into that. There is a significant reduction in cost if the RCMP plane is used for transporting prisoners. I can say that every time I have seen the plane in Hay River, it has had somebody that has been escorted back or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The RCMP are responsible for prisoner transportation in the Northwest Territories. Our agreement with the RCMP is that the NWT government pays 70 percent of the cost of the contract, and the federal government pays 30 percent of the cost of that contract. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that the people who work at Dene K'onia have a lot of good skills that could be used in the system, and I have no doubt that they would be qualified for some of the positions in Yellowknife. If they are interested in transferring to Yellowknife and taking those positions, I am sure that they would be offered some of them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.