Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll follow up with my questions for the Minister of Justice.
My first question is: When can the community of Hay River expect to get a resident judge back in the community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had a deputy judge that was residing in Hay River up until last summer. We will certainly take the Member’s concerns back to the department and see what we can come up with. Thank you.
With the deputy judge stepping away from Hay River, was that on choice or was it the department’s move, and what is the hiring policy? Are we hiring somebody to fill that position? Can the Minister give me some more information on that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the circuit in Hay River hasn’t been growing. Meanwhile, here in Yellowknife court time is going up. The demand is here in Yellowknife, but we do take the Member’s concerns seriously. It was the individual’s decision to relocate out of the Northwest Territories from Hay River. Thank you.
My next question is to deal with remand and dealing with inmates, our accused people of the public, and they’re holding in facilities and the Minister just indicated that it’s busy in Yellowknife.
Why do we not have remand in Hay River? Why are we not taking some of that court pressure off in Yellowknife in the Hay River area for South Slave residents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in ‘12-13 there were 67 inmates from the South Slave and Deh Cho regions that were in remand. Last year we had 71.
The current facility in Hay River is a minimum security facility. It’s not meant to house remand offenders and we have moved forward now from the decision that was made in 2005. It was a cost-cutting effort, but again, because the program is available here at North Slave Correctional Centre for inmates that are on remand, it was deemed more appropriate to house them here at North Slave Correctional Centre given the fact that the facility in Hay River is a minimum security facility and it would be a security risk to have inmates on remand in that facility. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question about the remand, and it used to be in Hay River and Hay River has always been a minimum security, so I’m not sure, has there been a change in policy? Has there been a change in the facility? Has their requirement for infrastructure for that facility to have remand in Hay River, to get that back in the community, get back to that in the South Slave to relieve some of that pressure in Yellowknife? Thank you.
In my time as Minister of Justice, I’m not aware of any changes in policy. I do know that the facility in Hay River could only house six inmates at any one time and it is a minimum security facility. They don’t have the level of programming that is offered to inmates that are on remand here at the North Slave Correctional Centre. I can get the Member some further detailed information on whether or not there was a policy shift. This is going back 10 years, so I’ll ask the department about that.
The good news is that with the facility in Hay River, we have added three new positions to that facility over the last number of years in working with inmates at that facility. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
