Statements in Debates
Yes, Madam Chair.
The Member keeps referring to the fact that we have a facility with one person in it. I just have to state again – we said it several times – we have no facilities with one person in it. All of our facilities have large numbers of people in them. We have a facility, a youth facility here in Yellowknife that houses both youth male and youth female. At this point we have one female offender in that facility, but it is still a facility and it still has a number of people in it.
I am interested in fiscal responsibility. I have sat, in the last four years, in front of this department during business...
We haven’t received any federal money to help us with our internal human resource management system, no. We haven’t received any money federally to help us with our human resource management system. It’s an internal system to the Government of the Northwest Territories and we fund it with GNWT dollars.
There’s nothing to prohibit, but it would cost money to do that analysis and I think our money could be better spent on programming for the residents of the Northwest Territories and the facilities that we do have.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The previous year’s estimates, I understand, are for the shift scheduling software that we put in previously. That was an item that we worked on in ’11-12. The ’12-13 item of $300,000 is specifically for ePerformance and there will be $300,000 next year as well.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For many of the IT programs that are being supported within the GNWT, we are part of the IT whole system, supported by the TSC, our general, sort of, normal programs. The programs where we’re not supported by them in the same way would be our courts program and our correction programs. Those are specific, similar to many programs that exist in Education and similar to many programs that exist in Health and Social Services that are administered by the department. We do the same with our court program and our corrections program.
Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is Ms. Sheila Bassi-Kellett, the deputy minister of Human Resources; and on my left is Michelle Beard, who is the director of strategy and policy. Thank you.
We haven’t done necessarily a cost-benefit analysis, but the department has a mandate to keep its offenders in the Northwest Territories close to their homes and close to their family, close to their culture where their family can get to them and visit them. There are other things that we have to factor in, as well, as in will other jurisdictions take our offenders.
Most jurisdictions are faced with exactly the same challenges we’re faced with, which is overcrowding. For us to try to go to other jurisdictions and stick some of our offenders there can prove to be quite complicated. But the main...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We understand the sentiment of this motion. The department itself has expressed some concerns with Bill C-10 and the cost that will be downloaded to the Government of the Northwest Territories once Bill C-10 becomes a reality. To that end I have set up a meeting with the federal Minister of Justice for this Monday. I’m going to be bringing forward the concerns of the department and the Legislature at that meeting and we will be working to try and find some opportunities to mitigate some of these costs here in the Northwest Territories. In addition, I will be meeting...
Thank you, Madam Chair. We have one female youth in custody in the North at the youth facility here in Yellowknife. We have 11 female adults in custody as well. With respect to the cost for Nunavut to house somebody in one of our facilities, I’m going to go to Ms. Watters for that.