Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. Yesterday I had the opportunity to raise a couple of issues with him. The first one I want to talk about is the idea of locating a federal penitentiary here in the Northwest Territories. Yesterday the Minister stated that because they were dealing with the courthouse issue and had to set some priorities, they weren’t able to get to this idea that I had brought to him a while back.
The courthouse project has not been on the capital plan at least for the past two years, so I’m trying to make some sense of the Minister’s comments. I’d like to ask him why we haven’t, as a government, had any preliminary discussions with the federal government on exploring the possibility of locating any new federal corrections institutions here in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area, we get direction from the Legislative Assembly and the priorities and goals and objectives of this government. I didn’t see any penitentiary within the goals of this Assembly. There are other priority items, priorities of the Northwest Territories and the communities such as community policing or other community programming. Those are the areas we focus on. Mostly on community policing, the Community Policing Program. Those are the areas that we’re focusing on. The areas we feel we can achieve and we have to date achieved those goals and objectives. Whether it be a penitentiary institution, that may be five or 10 years down the road that we may see a light. At this time we went after the short term and have achieved it.
As a government I believe we have to be searching out opportunities. I disagree with the Minister. Here’s an opportunity to get some real economic development in one of our communities here in the Northwest Territories. I’m talking 300 jobs, multiple families with the possibility of moving to the Northwest Territories, increasing our revenue stream, business opportunities, contract opportunities for businesses. This is something the government has to pay attention to. They have to have some vision, they have to have some passion, and they have to have some vigor. They’re low when it comes to any of those things. They’re letting opportunities pass us by and I’d like to ask the Minister when he will have that discussion. If the Minister’s not going to have that discussion, when will the Premier have that discussion with the federal government? If we don’t make our own opportunities and pursue them nobody’s going to do it for us.
If it is the will of this Assembly, I will be more than willing to present that idea to the federal government. But I haven’t heard much from this Assembly if this is a priority for this government. If it is, then I’d like to know from this Assembly. Then I can put a bug in the federal Minister’s ear that this is of high importance for the territorial government. I haven’t heard that to date. There are other pressing issues that we certainly are dealing with. I feel that we need to tackle more of those small issues that we can certainly achieve.
Like I said, if we don’t pursue opportunities, there are other jurisdictions in this country. I know Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario are very aggressive in pursuing opportunities. You can rest assured their Members of Parliament and provincial Legislature are out there beating the bushes with the federal government, looking for the federal government to invest in their provinces. We’re not doing that and I think this Minister has to have that discussion. It’s not going to cost us anything to write a letter or sit down with that Minister of Justice and talk to them about the possibility of a penitentiary here in the Northwest Territories. That’s not setting aside any of the other priorities of this government; that’s sitting down with the Minister and discussing the opportunity. That’s what I’m asking the Minister to do. I can’t speak for the rest of the Members of this House, but 300 jobs in an economic opportunity like this is something I don’t think we should turn our backs on because of other priorities.
With the federal government and their own initiatives, we don’t know if this is on their radar. At the same time, if we’re going to build this kind of facility, we’re talking millions. Those millions going through the communities, such as preventive programs that we currently are pursuing, we are again achieving those successes to date. Community policing. We’re talking about an institution here that could be in the far distance, down the road. At the same time, we have to listen to what the federal government’s goals and objectives are for the Northwest Territories. When the opportunity comes up, sure, I can ask the federal Minister if there’s a plan for that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, we wouldn’t be using our own money. It would be a federal penitentiary. A federal institution, much like I’ve asked this government to go to Ottawa and demand that those 800-or-so-odd jobs that are located in Gatineau in Ottawa that pertain to northern development are located here. It’s much the same as asking this government to go to the federal government and demand that more military jobs are located here in the Northwest Territories. It’s the same thing. It’s not our money. So how hard is it to go and ask for it? That’s my question. When will the Minister write a letter to the federal Minister of Justice asking them what their plans are for building a new penitentiary in this country and whether in fact we can register our interest in locating that here? It’s not going to cost us anything. I’ll give him the 42 cents for a stamp.
Fifty-eight cents. We have to keep our priorities straight here. We have two detachments that are coming: Wrigley and Gameti. Those are my first priority as a department of the GNWT. Penitentiary is over here possibly. We have to consult with the federal government if they’re willing to do that. My focus is on two detachments and I’m going to continue to push that until we see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s coming. Those are our priorities for this Government of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
