Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just about two weeks ago, when my colleague for Range Lake and I were holding our discussion on public safety and concerns and hearing stories, one of the things that came up was the fact that the NSCC is full, and I think my colleague brought that up the other day. I am asking the Minister of Justice, what does the department do when the corrections centre is full; what is their plan to deal with that challenge? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have not looked at the current numbers. The numbers within the facility fluctuate on a daily basis, and I am certainly given consistent information on that plan. Currently, we're are looking at some changes to the facility in Hay River to allow another grade of inmate to participate in the programming in that facility, and that will help us to address the capacity challenges. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, you can only keep filling the cup so much until it spills over. You can only keep putting inmates into cells that no longer fit. Mr. Speaker, what does the department do when you have reached 100 percent capacity? What is the trigger point to ask yourself we need expanded space? Schools have it, why doesn't the jail system have it? Or maybe the Minister can enlighten the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are provisions within the facility to allow some doubling up of inmates and to help to increase capacity. Currently, we are looking at -- full capacity is 207 inmates, and we currently have 139 male inmates and two female inmates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to say the numbers are wrong. What I am going to bring it back to is what triggers an expansion in the jail system -- and that's ultimately the question -- to ensure that we are meeting the inmates' human rights version of the necessity there and as such there must be a trigger point to consider that capital response. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are -- within our system, we currently take inmates from other jurisdictions. So there are some federal inmates. There are some inmates from Nunavut. So if the capacity requirement for inmates from the Northwest Territories was to rise, we would have to go back and look at the agreements we have with the other jurisdictions and focus on the requirements of the territory first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
