Mr. Hehr: Mr. Speaker, the Kainai community corrections facility, the only correctional facility in the province established for aboriginal inmates, is being closed, and the reason given by the Solicitor General is that there are not enough minimum security aboriginal inmates available to use this facility. 

To the Solicitor General: now that we had an opportunity to discuss this last week, is it still your assertion that Kainai community corrections is closing because of a lack of minimum security aboriginal inmates in Alberta in need of its services?

Mr. Oberle: Actually, just to correct the preamble, Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe I said that the reason that we are closing it is because of a lack of minimum security inmates. That is one issue. I also indicated, I think rather clearly, that we have a budgetary issue, and we also have services available in other locations. If the member would like to attend my estimates tonight, I’ll be discussing this in more detail.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Hehr: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, if you check Hansard from last week, you can refer to your answer there, where it did say that you had a lack of aboriginal inmates for the facility.

Nonetheless, on March 8 the Kainai correctional centre received notice that the Lethbridge Correctional Centre was holding 19 male and 15 female aboriginal inmates that were classified as minimum security. Why were these aboriginal inmates not serving time in the Kainai correctional centre, located a mere, short distance away?

Mr. Oberle: Well, again to correct the preamble, Mr. Speaker, I most certainly didn’t say that there was a lack of aboriginal inmates. That’s what he said in his second preamble. I did say that the inmate population was changing, and there are less minimum security inmates in our inmate population today. If the member would care to get his facts straight, we could get to a question.

Mr. Hehr: Okay. Fair enough. So if we have less minimum security inmates, we have a few more medium security inmates. We have this facility that’s being used for aboriginal inmates. Why aren’t we using more of this facility to house aboriginal inmates in medium security? Can’t you use your powers to make this happen?

Mr. Oberle: Well, I was asked that question before, Mr. Speaker. I want to remind the hon. member that the facility is not ours. It’s a lease program, a contracted services arrangement. The facility is not ours, and it’s not up to me to reconstruct it, and I don’t have funds to do that. So we’re seeking solutions elsewhere.

Alberta Hansard, March 16, 2010

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