Nunavut MLAs spike jail study proposal

Nunavut's regular MLAs have dashed the government's hopes of replacing the territory's aging, overcrowded jail with a new facility in Iqaluit.

The regular, or non-cabinet, members voted 9-8 on Tuesday to deny a $300,000 request by the Justice Department to conduct a study on options for upgrading or replacing the Baffin Correctional Centre in Iqaluit.

Justice Peterson Keith Peterson said the Iqaluit jail is run down and dangerously overcrowded, with up to 95 inmates occupying the 66-bed facility on any given day.

"When inmates are saying they don't want to be sent to Baffin Correctional Centre because it's falling apart and it's dangerous, then you know you have a problem," Peterson told MLAs in the legislature.

"They're telling me that and my officials are as well. It's a facility that has to be replaced. It has to be looked at."

Peterson added that overcrowded conditions at the jail have "the potential to lead to violence."

But Iqaluit West MLA Paul Okalik, who introduced the motion to deny the Justice Department's funding request, said a community learning centre in Iqaluit should be a higher priority than a study on the jail.

"A lot of my constituents could use that help so that they could have more productive lives," Okalik said.

Okalik, a former justice minister, added that Nunavut should focus more on crime prevention than incarceration.

Akulliq MLA John Ningark agreed, saying a study on a new jail would do nothing to stop repeat offenders.

"Why don't we try to help these people before they start committing real bad crimes?" Ningark said. "We can expose these people to the land, to the nature."

But Hunter Tootoo, minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corp., said the government must provide a safe setting for both corrections staff and inmates.

"We have a responsibility to provide not only a safe work environment for employees, but also a safe environment for the individuals that are unfortunate enough to have to be detained in that facility," Tootoo said.

In the end, the vote was split between eight cabinet MLAs and eight regular MLAs.

Chairman South Baffin MLA Fred Schell broke the tie in favour of Okalik's motion.

A new territorial jail, to be based in Rankin Inlet, is still on track to be completed next year.