David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, if the Minister is satisfied that fair hiring practices are underway at the North Slave Correctional Centre, I wonder why a full-scale internal human resource review is being conducted by one of our senior HR people with FMBS. Maybe he could suggest why that’s happening and maybe stand up and admit there are some serious concerns out there in terms of human resource management. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Justice a number of questions today with regard to staff morale and other issues at the North Slave Correctional Centre. The first question I would like to ask the Minister is what steps since last spring when this situation was first outlined to the Minister, has he or his deputy taken to address the staff morale issue at North Slave Correctional Centre? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues, for the opportunity to rise in the House today to speak about an issue that just does not seem to want to go away. The issue I'm referring to is the North Slave Correctional Centre. Whether it's an inmate or an employee phoning me, it seems that issues surrounding the facility and its operation continue to pile up.

I'll start firstly with staff morale at the centre. It is taking a continued pounding, even though last spring we had hoped that a change of scenery to a new building would help the state of mind of the employees. Employee issues...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some more questions, and perhaps tomorrow I will ask these questions, but the last question I have for the Minister today is I just wanted to know how this experiment of going from a security type of institutional setting that typifies a correctional facility to this healing and holistic type of programming is going. What success has been seen to date? If I could, Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to ask how including federal inmates that are housed in the North Slave Correctional Centre impacts this healing and holistic approach and how they are dealt with with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of my four questions, the last one was, if the department had a long-term senior management plan in place for that facility, and by the sounds of it, it is a revolving door, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear in the Minister’s response whether or not they indeed had a plan to try to get some stability in these key positions. By the sounds of it, they are moving people in and out at will. I think that is part of the problem that is currently at play at the North Slave Correctional Centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will get back to the amount of overtime to employees at the North Slave Correctional Centre. For the period of one year, up until May 31, 2004, that amount was $216,395. Between June 1, 2004, and September 30, 2004, that amount was $243,913. Could the Minister explain why it is that his department, who knew for three years that they were moving into a new facility, wasn’t staffed up to the level that it had to be and didn’t take the measures that were necessary to not have to pay this amount of overtime? It’s ridiculous to think that in a four-month period we paid...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for your response. I will go back to the explanation that the Minister gave, which is fine and good, but the problems in staff morale existed well before the changeover to the new facility. His response didn’t really answer the question. What steps have been taken to address the issue of staff morale and also the issue of fair hiring practices at the North Slave Correctional Centre? I don’t think his response answered the question. Thank you.

As many of you will recall, I had asked numerous questions about a health services audit that was conducted at the centre months ago. The reason the audit was initiated was the fact that I had received a petition signed by over 100 inmates at the centre about some very grave concerns they had about the way health services were being delivered at the North Slave Correctional Centre. To this day, I still have not received even a watered-down version or any other version of what that audit said, even though I've asked numerous times for it. What changes have been made -- and I would like to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I go back to something else the Minister said. That is in regards to people speaking out. The Minister said that they wouldn’t be hung out to dry. In my experience, Mr. Speaker, these people have had a bull’s eye squarely put on their back. I don’t think that is fair. I wanted to ask the Minister why he said this would happen, when, in fact, through my experience, it happens. People that speak out are painted with a bull’s eye squarely on their back and they are left to fend for themselves in that type of environment. It is not fair, Mr. Speaker. I just want...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few more questions in regard to the North Slave Correctional Centre. I would like to go back to what the Minister was saying in terms of his being satisfied with the staffing levels at the North Slave Correctional Centre. I would like to ask him how he maintains his satisfaction level when, in the last four years, his department has gone through no less than three wardens, five deputy wardens, three deputy wardens of programs, and three deputy wardens of administration? How is that satisfaction? What is the Minister’s definition of satisfied? Has he or...