R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member's enthusiasm over oil and gas. I'm a child of oil and gas myself. I wouldn't be here if not for oil and gas in the Beaufort Delta. But it is not my place to actually sort of advocate to the regulator or make recommendation to the regulator. That being said, they're happy to receive a reach out and the Member himself could make those connections. I'm just not -- the reason it is in here in Justice is because Justice is removed from that industry, and it is -- it's for the independence of the organization. And so for that reason I do stay out of...

Thank you. All options were looked at. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm not sure if we're fully staffed in that area. I think we're often down a drafter and so more positions wouldn't necessarily solve the issue. We just need the people, I think. Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you. The Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas is arm's length from government, and so I have very little to -- I have no involvement in the daily operations. What we are responsible for is to, A, not meddle in their operations; and, B, to ensure that they are funded appropriately. Through our conversations, this was the appropriate level of funding that was determined. I'm happy to go back and look at next year's main estimates with an eye to adjusting as necessary. And I will note that we did go through an exercise in the last Assembly to adjust their budget based on the level of...

Thank you. So the Fort Smith facility has been -- for the last little while, there's been no offenders there. Previously, it was around half full, give or take. Our entire capacity across the system, we're about 44 percent capacity across the system. Thank you.

Thank you. I don't think we have any metrics on that. I'm not sure if the Member's looking for -- if I can get some explanation of what's meant by metrics. Is it pages per drafter or pages produced per year or things like that? Thank you.

Thank you. And I'm not sure what the Member was listening to, but I never said that the Members are here to set us up to make us look good. There is an expectation that Ministers do know their portfolios. Here in the Northwest Territories, we have a relatively small Cabinet yet we still are expected to deliver all of the programs and services in all of the same areas that they do in other places in Canada where they might have 10, 20, or 30 Cabinet Ministers. I personally, in the last government, I think I had 14 or 15 different FPT tables that I sat at - that's federal, provincial, and...

I'd hand it to Mr. Bancroft for that information. Thank you.

Thank you. So the drop in numbers is due to a number of changes to the Criminal Code and decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada that changed the rules around bail and remanding prisoners. We used to have significantly more remanded inmates in the facilities. That is one of the issues. Perhaps I can hand it to the deputy minister for some more detail on this. Thank you.