Jane Groenewegen

Well, you know, it’s ironic, Mr. Chairman. We’re going to need more than four RCMP just to keep escorting these people back and forth. We’re going to be taking RCMP out of circulation to do this. So it’s kind of a catch-22 situation. Mr. Chairman, ever since the business plans came forward and the main estimates came forward and standing committees made their recommendations, even since then there has been initiatives discussed with us, I don’t want to get into the detail of them, that indicate new investments on the part of this government for expanding government, for adding positions for...

Thank you for that characterization of that being one small part in one small place. That one small part and that one small change is costing my community 5.5 indeterminate positions and probably nine casual positions in the process. If the Minister thinks that is a small impact on a small community, well, then I guess I have my work cut out for me here to talk about this, because that is a huge impact. It may be a small change in the overall operations of Justice and part of this government, but it is a huge impact on the community of Hay River.

Mr. Chair, I am just going to talk for a few...

Agreed. Thank you. Page 6-12, infrastructure acquisition plan, services to the public, tangible capital assets, total tangible capital assets, $93,000, total activity, $93,000, total department, $1.780 million.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of the people that we had indicated would be losing their jobs in Hay River, I had indicated 12 full-time positions at the Dene K’onia and the 10 casual positions. The Minister indicated that we wouldn’t count the casuals into the job losses. However, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to indicate that of the 10 casuals, at least six have worked at that facility for more than three years, four years, three years, seven, and seven. Quite a number of them have been there for a long time. This is their sole source of income. I think it is really a sad statement on the part...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Which is my point; if the Minister thought there was need for it, he would find the money. Correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My point is it is only possible because of the investment that was made in the North Slave Correctional Centre. What was the investment in the North Slave Correctional Centre, one more time, for the record, Mr. Chair?

Agreed. Thank you. Page 6-10, infrastructure acquisition plan, community justice and corrections, tangible capital assets, total tangible capital assets, $90,000, total activity, $90,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given that the first year was the hard year, and that was the year that Hay River got hit so desperately, and now it looks like the future is a little better; wouldn’t it be prudent as a government, to go back and revisit some of those reductions to try to mitigate some of that harm that has been brought to my community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is exactly what I said and that’s what I thought. Mr. Chairman, being a government, then any department carries that kind of a vacancy that would lead me to believe there is a little bit of manoeuvrability within the Justice budget. In fact, the 49 vacancies would, even if some of them are in the process of being staffed, if you go with the industry standard for vacancy, there is still lots of room in the Justice budget to accommodate the $267,000 for the remand centre in Hay River so that we could keep that operational until such time as we have a chance to look...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just as a side note then, I just want to make a comment here and I hope the UNW is listening. I hope that they're taking note of how this department treats casuals and term employees, because I think certainly they could not operate their facilities without casual employees and I think it's a rather abysmal oversight for the Minister to not even be aware whether or not they have been consulted about changes that are coming in such a short time, in three weeks from now, and can't speak to that definitively.

Mr. Chairman, can I just move on to the issue of the assertion...