Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to make some questions today for the Minister of Justice on the document that he tabled a couple days ago, Analysis of Federal Bill C-10, Safe Streets and Communities Act: Impacts on the NWT Department of Justice. I didn’t get a chance to go through it in detail yet, but just some stuff from the conclusions that were mentioned. He’s talking about if our institutions should become full capacity, what is his plan with this impact on the justice system? What is his plan for inmates if they can’t get into our institutions?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the report, it identifies that we think we might see as many as 11 positions or 11 people in those facilities over a year, at a whole year duration, not actual days, which will put additional pressure on the facilities, absolutely. Right now we have an opportunity, given that we have Nunavut inmates as well as federal inmates in those facilities, and our first step would be to stop taking Nunavut inmates, which would leave us room for northern inmates. Thank you.
I forgot to mention, I just wanted to thank the Minister for tabling the document so that our public and our residents get an opportunity to see this and see the impacts that it’s going to have on our government and our communities.
In the conclusions, the Minister mentioned that there might be an extra pod for the North Slave Correctional Centre, as well as maybe the construction of a proposed women’s facility. When we were going through the process of Arctic Tern in Inuvik, can the Minister commit to looking at that facility, the Arctic Tern facility again and maybe, possibly making the right adjustments to it so that we can open it up should we need not construct a new building but use existing infrastructure, which we always preach about. Can the Minister answer that question? Thank you.
The most recent technical report on the Public Works and Services building still indicates that there are limitations to that building to be used as a secure facility for corrections purposes. That building has been turned over to Public Works and Services who will do some remediation work on it and have it ready for some disposal. Somebody will be able to use that building. Unfortunately, it can’t meet the criteria or the conditions for a secure facility.
We do need a female facility. The female facility we have in Fort Smith is not meeting the needs. It needs to be upgraded, and it is in the list of facilities that need to be reviewed and, hopefully, constructed over the life of this government. But we still need to have those discussions. Thank you.
The estimates that he’s got in this report are $32 million for the North Slave Correctional Centre, and then he’s got another $35 million in his conclusions for another building. We’ve got existing infrastructure out there and we have to look at how we can use those so that we don’t always put money into capital.
With that said, there’s also going to be an increase of, he states that more people are going to be wanting to appeal their sentences, so it’s going to put more stress on our legal aid system, which is already exhausted enough. What is his plan for the legal aid system should people start appealing their sentences? Thank you.
Right now we have just completed the drafting of a new Legal Aid Act, which will be coming in front of committee soon, hopefully. We’ve also been having discussions in Cabinet and with committee about enhancing or providing some additional resources to the legal aid unit, and we will continue to have those discussions and find a way to enhance the services being provided in that area. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Knowing what he knows here and the report that’s in there, can the Minister provide Members on this side of the House a detailed plan of how he’s going to start implementing the effects of this report that he put out, a plan that’s going to allow us to know what’s going to be coming in future business plans? Thank you.
We only have 36 minutes and I don’t think anybody wants me to use that entire time up. What I’d like to offer is I can certainly meet with committee to go through some of the things that we’re planning and build upon the discussions that we’ve already had on the business plan and walk through some of the details of this report. If the committee wants that, I am happy to provide the Member and committee with a little bit more of a briefing on this topic. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
