Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s discussing this particular area of concern for his riding. We will do our part as the Department of Justice to monitor the programs that are being delivered at the centre. Wherever there needs to be improvement, we’ll highlight that as well. Certainly we will continue to monitor the progress of the centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There are proposed changes to the North Slave Correctional Centre and also the young offenders that we’re faced with. At the same time, there are no changes to the program delivery. We will continue to deliver those programs with the staff that we have at the centre.

Mr. Chair, we’ll certainly utilize those impacted employees once they qualify as the case managers. We do have a program delivery officer as well.

The Member is referring to an RFP. The project is funded by the federal government and incorporates traditional aboriginal knowledge that he is referring to. It will enhance the programming already offered at the facility. It is a program funded by the federal government. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The program delivery that we’re talking about, the motion that’s before us, the $83,000…. Part of the reason why we’re moving forward on this is that there is also additional funding, as we indicated earlier, from the federal government, that does all sit in these areas. We will continue to work with our federal counterparts in that particular area. Part of the reason why our department came down on these items is that we are moving in that direction, where the money’s allocated from the feds. One of these areas that we’re talking about — that’s also a vacant position.

So, Mr...

Mr. Chair, within Corrections we are moving into a new, more integrated program delivery model that we’ve initiated, and that is our proposed plan through this Assembly, and with staff at many different levels actively involved. Instead of having only three people delivering the program, many of the employees will deliver them.

We talked about the deletion of positions, but at the same time, there are two vacant positions, and these potentially impacted individuals have the opportunity to take on that role. So that’s an area that we are looking at.

Also, we have a program delivery officer as...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Until the Members make some sort of a recommendation, all I can say at this point is that I will consider it.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have Donald Cooper, my deputy minister of Justice, and also Kim Schofield, director of finance, to my immediate left.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes has indicated, and also other Members, this has been in the books for a number of years. It’s a 1950s building, and it’s due for replacement.

We talk about Arctic Tern facility as well. There have been all kinds of numbers thrown around during our legislation debates. Just for the record, $14 million has been thrown around for Arctic Tern. To set the record straight, it was $6 million when it was built. And also a correction: the closing-down of the programming there is due to the fact that it’s severely underutilized. Last week...

Mr. Chairman, with our department they have done some work in this area. Like I said earlier, one of the important steps was reintegrating inmates into communities, and it is one of our important milestones. We have initiated pilot projects in the communities, such as the Sahtu exploration area, where inmates were taken out on the land for various weeks. We’ve done that a couple of years now. We are looking at other communities as well to do a pilot project there. What the Member is referring to is the NGOs in the community and that possibly programs could be delivered at the community level.

T...

I, too, would like to recognize a couple of Pages in this Assembly: Trina Weyallon from Behchoko and Edie Erasmus from Behchoko. You’re doing a great job. Mahsi.