Employees at jail in Fort Smith, N.W.T., say men's unit slated to close

Employees of a correctional facility in Fort Smith, N.W.T., say they've received notice that the jail's men's unit is targeted for closure. 

One employee of the Fort Smith Correctional Complex told CBC News that staff were told on May 15 that the unit is slated for closure as a cost-cutting measure. CBC has agreed not to name the employee because they're not authorized to speak publicly. 

The employee said staff at the facility were in disbelief. 

"It's not right what they're doing to us," they said. 

The territorial government has not confirmed the closure.  

A department of finance spokesperson said in an email that the department "could not comment on proposed budget items prior to the minister of finance's budget address in the legislative assembly."

In February, the government announced that it would be looking to find an additional $150 million annually through a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases.

The territory's department of justice did not respond to CBC's questions about capacity of each of the territory's corrections facilities, or the number of employees that could be affected by the closure. The territory's other two correctional facilities are in Hay River and Yellowknife.

The Fort Smith employee said they believe about 20 staff at that facility would be affected. They said the women's unit at the Fort Smith facility is not expected to close. 

The employee also said that about a month ago, all inmates at the Fort Smith men's unit were moved to the North Slave Correctional Complex in Yellowknife. Staff in Fort Smith were apparently told that was so they could focus on training and the department could upgrade the building. 

Inmates have not returned to the facility since, the employee told CBC News. 

They also said that staff in Fort Smith aren't ready to give up yet. 

"We're going to make this loud," they said. 

Gayla Thunstrom, president of the Union of Northern Workers (UNW), said the union has heard from several members about receiving notice about the closure of the Fort Smith Correctional Complex.  

Thunstrom was not available for an interview but said in an emailed statement that the union is particularly concerned about public sector cuts that impact workers outside Yellowknife. 

"Cuts to programs and staff outside of the capital makes it even harder for small communities to recruit and retain workers in other areas, leading to even more services being centralised," the statement reads. 

"It's not fair to workers in these communities and it's not fair to the residents they serve."

'A lot of trickle-down'

Chris Westwell, president of the Thebacha Chamber of Commerce in Fort Smith, said losing the facility would be a serious blow to the town. 

"These kinds of jobs are huge to our local economy, to our retail economy, our service economy, our housing and construction … there's a lot of trickle-down," he said. 

With mines in the territory slated to close in the coming years, and the territory's plan to save $150 million a year, Westwell said he worries small communities are going to feel the pain most. 

"I would hate to see that their first cost-cutting measure is to start, you know, continuing to walk down these sort of centralization roads," he said. 

The government's budget address will be delivered on Friday. Westwell says he hopes to have some questions answered.

"I hope to God there's some plan before something like this that affects so many people negatively."

Lydia Bardak, a social justice advocate in the territory, says the Fort Smith jail has always been a model of community corrections. In addition to the job cuts, she said it's a loss to cut a facility that allows inmates to be closer to home where they can volunteer, pursue education and be visited by family nearby. 

If inmates are moved to the North Slave Correctional Complex in Yellowknife, she says they risk losing a lot of that freedom. 

The Yellowknife facility has a significant number of remanded inmates who are being held while they wait for trial and may later end up in a federal facility, Bardak says. Those inmates are living with those sentenced to lesser crimes.  

"When you have such a variety of people in one facility, it's not even possible for the staff to be able to differentiate who's who under what security risk," she said. 

"So naturally, the easiest thing is just treat everybody as if they're a high-risk-security and don't give them any kind of freedom."