Louis Sebert

Mr. Chair, I understand that the Auditor General's report did advocate or propose this type of facility, so in line with that, that's why we're building the facility. Thank you.

Perhaps Ms. Schofield could also assist on that. Thank you.

Yes, I would. Clearly we share the concerns expressed by the Member, where we are hoping to move to a system where there might be fewer. But I do notice, looking at the highs and lows over the last five years, that the numbers seem to be going up. Now, one of the reasons for that might be, and this is a problem across Canada which I heard a good deal about when I was in the FPT in Halifax, is that there are more and more people being in custody who are on remand. So that might be one of the reasons for the increase in numbers. But the peak high in the last year is 18, which is not that many...

Ms. Schofield could best answer that, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand the capacity to be 21, and the current numbers are 14. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Of course, there's a considerable amount of planning that did go into the facility, and, as I understand it, there were some changes in the structure or the plans for the structure. I can advise that actual construction had started when I was last in Fort Smith, which was a couple of weeks ago. They were starting some of the basic construction, pouring cement while the weather was still decent. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I understand that it's been 12 years since the van was replaced. Thank you.

This is just the capital cost for the space. The space is 60 metres squared, which could be 10 metres by six metres, so it's a little bigger than the Member was contemplating. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you for the question. Yes, so, though the facility might be slightly larger than what we need currently, what we have to be cognizant of is peaks and valleys. Looking over the last few years, there have been peaks as low as three or four and highs as high as 18, so we wanted to build a facility that was big enough to accommodate the highs as well as the lows, obviously. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I believe we could share the plans with committee next month. So we wouldn't have to wait till February. Thank you.