Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I see where you're going with this, and like I walk it pretty often. I'll always take the roadway, well wintertime, the shortcut, short way. Summertime, the longer way. But the other thing I guess is if there is a new trail, and maybe I missed it, but will there be lighting on the new trail as well? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Mr. Speaker.
Yes, Madam Chair, there will be, yes.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess last question is we still have the roadway going towards the museum, and I don't think there is a walkway; you have to walk on the road. Is that going to be is that further down the road where there will be a walkway going along there as well? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that's stage two. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you. No further questions.
Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. A number of my questions have already been answered so I'll probably keep this pretty short. So the stretch of road we're talking about, there was comments about the safety concerns. How many incidents have occurred on that road where perhaps someone was struck by a vehicle or there was some sort of collision or near misses, if we know of that, in the past, I guess, 25 years that the Assembly has been here? Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For that detail, I'll go to SergeantatArms. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thagard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Luckily to this date that I'm aware of, there have been no vehicular and pedestrian collisions along that route. The traffic down that roadway pedestrianwise obviously wasn't as significant as it is now. So we're concerned that it's just a matter of time that something's going to happen, and we just want to address that before we get into a situation where something has happened.
We've had a number of complaints from folks walking down there, former Members included, that it is a safety concern, and they're not comfortable or they weren't comfortable and they were concerned for their safety so that helped drive this project as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thagard. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you. The other route that was mentioned by the other Member from Hay River was from I guess the existing trail towards the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre. There is no walkway there either. Why was this route chosen over that route? And the reason I ask is because the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre is a public building and, you know, generally, in normal times, we're also also open to the public here at the Assembly. But I imagine they get more visitors, more foot traffic than we get here. And I know that the Assembly is responsible for the it's capitol area, I believe. And I wonder if that path would get more use than the path that is being proposed. Is there is there any information about whether or not that might be an accurate statement? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually most people that use this trail are actually doing the loop. So the whole roundabout, if you will, pretty much the same but a lot of people when they're talking to work usually come either whether it's from Highway No. 4 or most of us have to travel walk by the old tourism centre, the but maybe I'll just turn that to SergeantatArms if he has anything to add. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thagard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Great question. So we did look at priorities and areas of concern. And the reason I think that we went with this being phase one to the Legislative Assembly is the access road from Highway No. 4 to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre is a twoway road, which is wider inherently than the road coming up to the Legislative Assembly. So while it is still a safety concern, it presents a little bit less of a risk scenario than the roadway leading up to the Legislative Assembly building. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just did a quick sort of calculation here on Google Maps of what I think the new path right look like, and it looks like it's probably under or somewhere around 200 meters. So we're looking at a couple thousand dollars a meter. I find it difficult, I guess, to support something like this just given that we have a lot of competing needs in the territory, and this is a very short trail to the Legislative Assembly. And I walk that street often. I've been here six years. I've walked it in winter, I've walked it in the summer, and I know that I'm walking on a road and if I was really that concerned, I would walk on the path. So there is sort of a sense of personal responsibility there as well to not just walk on the road. So I'm having some trouble supporting this item here.
I understand there was also a path parallel to the road that existed prior and may still exist in some fashion. I have to admit I've never seen it. So is there some sort of existing path there that perhaps could be revitalized for less of a cost? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River North. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, that's the route that this pathway will follow, just to save some costs and it's all about safety, as the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment should know that, you know, we have to look after our employees as well, and most of them which actually walk to work and there's not much traffic at 6 a.m. when you're walking to work here at the Ledge, so. But, you know, it's all about safety and, you know, if Members don't agree with it then, you know, it's up to them to support it or take it out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you. And I did consider that I don't see a lot of traffic there maybe because of the hours that I do walk that path. Yeah. I have no further questions but I do want to state that I do have serious reservations about this item. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any further questions, comments to this? I'm seeing none. Legislative Assembly, office of the clerk, infrastructure investments, $400,000, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, Members. Please return now to the Legislative Assembly summary found on page 7. Legislative Assembly, 20222023 Capital Estimates, $400,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that consideration of the Legislative Assembly is now complete?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Committee, we're going to take just a short couple minute break for the Minister of Justice to have his witnesses. Thank you.
---Recess
All right. I'll call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we will now consider the Department of Justice. Does the Minister of Justice wish to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, I do. Thank you.
Thank you. SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We have Ms. Charlene Dolittle, deputy minister, and Mr. James Bancroft, director of corporate services.
Thank you. Welcome. The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, the Department of Justice begins on page 55. We will defer the departmental totals and review the estimates by activity summary beginning on page 56 with Corrections and information items on page 57. Questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I don't have a lot of issue with what is being proposed here, but I do have some general questions about the state of our Corrections infrastructure and see whether I can keep this within scope.
Specifically at North Slave, I note that the youth facility has very, very low "attendance" I think is not quite the right word. We don't put a lot of youth in jail anymore and we have a beautiful facility over there. I'm just wondering if the department is looking at reusing that or can share some insights on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So we need a facility to hold youth. Whether that is the current facility or we build a new facility, we do need somewhere. It's not really feasible to send youth away to Whitehorse or Edmonton. And I think we all know that the cost of constructing something new is a big upfront cost, and so our option would be to construct something new and then try and do something with this current facility that already exists and is pretty difficult to repurpose or to keep the facility as is.
So that's a long way to say that I wish there was an easy solution where we could say, yes, we have zero to two offenders in that unit at any given time, and we don't need that much space and we can do something else. But it's not an easy solution. Perhaps I can see if deputy minister wants to add anything to that. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Doolittle.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the Member's correct, our numbers are low there, and I think that's a really good thing. The Youth Criminal Justice Act did bring in significant reforms in 2003 but, however, we still have to have, as the Minister mentioned, a place to when secure custody or open custody is ordered for youth, we need to have a place to have that. So we need both sides of the facility to do that, and it can't be sort of an open youth facility. Also, we cannot mix adults and youth and so that's another concern, we need to have adequate space for that as well. And as we do have new youth coming to our facility, there's also isolation terms as well when we bring people into our facility. So this space, especially during current COVID times, we do need the space at this moment. But the department is always looking at our numbers for youth and adults, and we'll try to use the facilities in the most efficient ways. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, and I guess, you know, I've when there's one youth inmate in there, it's almost like, I know it's a nice facility but it's almost a backwards way of being in solitary confinement in a giant facility. Andand you know, we're certainly not going to offer very elaborate programming for one to two offenders. Can I just get the Minister to elaborate on that point, that it's not feasible to send them to Whitehorse or Edmonton. Thank you.
