Charles Dent

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I never, at any time, said that the facility was not being run effectively and efficiently. What I did say was that if we are going to have the number of young people that we have in custody, which is a very small number, we can’t afford to operate two facilities. It doesn’t matter how effectively or efficiently they are being operated, it’s still costing way more than is necessary to spend.

We need to rationalize the number of facilities because we don’t have the number of kids that are being kept. This isn’t something that is new just to us. This is happening all...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just perhaps I could suggest that before we go to general comments on Bill 19, Department of Transportation, that we consider Bill 15 and see if we can’t conclude that and then resume with the Department of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As recently as last week I had that confirmed to me by the RCMP from headquarters here. So as far as I know, it may have changed in the last week, but I doubt it. I believe that the traffic unit will be increased by two officers based in Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it is common to have people from all regions, especially as we have reduced the numbers of facilities across the Territories. I guess the only point is that, on occasion, Members have made the point that we need to provide services close to home, as Mr. Villeneuve was doing. If we are going to follow that, then we have to take a look at what’s closest to home for people from Inuvik as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, with the positions that we have in this year’s budget and what was in last year’s budget, we are only going to be six positions short of what the RCMP asked for. I told the standing committee, when I appeared in front of them, that it was my intention to put the request forward as part of the business plan for next year, to follow through on delivering those RCMP officers in the next budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The training that’s offered in Inuvik is pre-apprenticeship training. It’s not the apprenticeship training. That’s to help people get ready to pass the trades entrance exams. The college can certainly take a look at offering that in different places, so I would encourage the Member to continue discussing with the college the use of the facilities in Tuktoyaktuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can have a look at it. Recently there has been a consultation process that we've undergone with people across the North on our strategic plan. I would be interested in seeing, as we go through the data, whether or not any comments came out about that.

I suspect that the theory behind the six-month stipulation is that people come into the program, they have the clothing that they're wearing when they come into the program, and the reason for it happening every six months is that there's an understanding that kids grow out of clothing and people wear clothing out....