Debates of June 2, 2004 (day 18)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to join many of the colleagues who have spoken about the situation surrounding northern clients in Alberta facilities. Mr. Speaker, there are lots of issues and questions surrounding this issue, but I would like to speak most of all in favour in moving quickly to repatriate these clients and any other clients we have in southern institutions. Mr. Speaker, I venture to say that Yellowknife has everything that Edmonton does and we could do it better in the North.

I believe there are also facilities in the North that could do this. Mr. Speaker, more importantly, this goes to how the government spends its money. When we go through our government, a big part of our government budget is earmarked. It’s marked in and there is nothing that Members on this side can do and programs like this, where we send clients to the South, are one of them. We give the dollars and we trust that the department, the government, the officials in charge of them, would do their best part to make sure that the money is spent wisely and that the best service possible is provided. The latest issue surrounding these APYS programs should make us revisit this issue, Mr. Speaker. We have the capacity in the North. We are all grown up now. Any people that we need to provide these programs can be hired with the $1 million a year that is currently going to this program.

The Member for Hay River South mentioned Fort Simpson as one of the possible locations, and I believe there are underused facilities there that we could tap into. I would like to add one more item, Mr. Speaker, and that is a facility in Inuvik that currently houses one female young offender for the amount of $800,000 a year.

Shame, shame!

Mr. Speaker, I am not suggesting that these clients be sent to an offender facility, but I understand it’s a very low-risk facility, and perhaps the government should look into moving that young offender to another facility so we could repatriate 10 people to stay in the North and for us to build capacity. I believe we can do that and we have to stop just locking these programs and expect that it will all be taken care of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause