Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today as a follow-up to a statement we heard in the House from one of our Ministers on corrections and on-the-land programs, otherwise known as wilderness programs. I do agree with the Minister that these programs do help our people heal, reconnect with their land and culture and values. But I’m saddened to hear that after all these years we’re still unable to select a qualified contractor. So with that, I do have questions for the Minister of Justice
It is well documented that the proponents who have offered wilderness programs in the past had serious issues with liability, liability in terms of safety of the inmates, safety of the providers and safety of the public.
Has the department considered all of the liability options from the past dealings with proponents and have there been corrective actions as we wait for an expression of interest? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier and again yesterday, we’ve had a number of proponents from around the territory that have expressed interest. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to parlay into them being a service provider. At the end of the day, there are a number of things they have to have. The Member talked about liability, we have had camps in the past. We have learned from those experiences what we want to see happen and we are going to work with the folks that have expressed interest. The Sahtu was one region were we got four expressions of interest. We hope to sit down with these folks as soon as we can, sometime this month, in an effort to get the program up and running somewhere in the Northwest Territories this calendar year, and that is our objective because of the benefits that it brings to the inmates and the healing that can happen through a wilderness program and an on-the-land type of experience. Thank you.
I’m not sure if I got a response to that question. We are right now in a position of a holding pattern. We’re waiting for proponents to come forward. We’re looking at expressions of interest and it has been clearly documented that this government has an opportunity to review, during its so-called quiet period, those issues of liability, maybe better guidelines or framework of action or, in essence, a better framework in place so that when we do have proponents in place they can be operating at efficiency.
Can the Minister indicate, has work been done to look at guidelines, look at framework, look at policies and look at regulations to make this system better? Thank you.
I thank the Member for the question. The answer to the question is yes, absolutely we have. We’ve taken this time that we’ve had to ensure that when we go forward with an expression of interest and we get to an RFP stage that we do know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into. I don’t have that level of detail here with me, but I’d be more than happy to share the work we have done with Members of the House. Thank you.
I appreciate the Minister’s offering on that. We know that from past use of this tool, which is an on-the-land tool, that the costs per inmate were quite substantive and it was quite variant in terms of as high as $1,500 per inmate to as low as about $500 per inmate per day. We know that the average costs for an inmate incarcerated in our corrections facilities is around $378 per inmate per day..
Does the Minister foresee that we’re going to be looking at a fairly large substantial cost should inmates start choosing this as an option and is his department prepared for that? Thank you.
Again, we’re working through all of these details. That is certainly one that we are paying attention to and I’m thankful for the Member bringing that up today. Again, as we get closer to working with a proponent on delivering this service in the Northwest Territories, we will be back having a briefing with the Standing Committee on Social Programs and Members that are interested in this to show them what we’ve come up with, who we’re working with and how this is all going to roll out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s reply on that. As we’ve been told, we’re waiting for an expression of interest from a number of proponents. We are not sure whether or not there will be a sure list of candidates or candidates at all.
Does the Minister have a plan of action should there be no succession planning in finding a proponent? Is the department prepared to take this initiative as a program themselves? Thank you.
Anybody that knows me knows I’m optimistic all the time. We are optimistic at DOJ that we are going to find a proponent to help us deliver this program in the Northwest Territories. We’ve got several who have expressed interest, five from the Sahtu and others. Until we get an opportunity to sit down and talk with them about our expectations, what they’re looking for, I’m sure we will find one of those groups that we will be able to work with and get this program back up and running in the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
