Nunavik pushing for detention centre

Nunavik’s first detention centre, called for in the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, was to open at the end of this year in Inukjuak.

But plans to go ahead with construction of the prison stalled following the election of a cost-conscious Liberal government in 2002.

The multi-million dollar Nunavik Detention Centre under consideration at that time was to house 40 inmates either in remand or serving jail terms of less than two years. It would have provided 53 jobs in Inukjuak, a community with one of the highest unemployment rates in Nunavik.

To get the project going, the KRG and Makivik Corporation have written a joint letter to Quebec’s public security department calling for movement on the file. A revised plan for a detention centre is supposed to be presented next month.

If plans for the centre do not advance, Makivik may decide to call on the JBNQA’s dispute resolution mechanism. The last time this was done was to force Ottawa and Quebec to begin providing social housing in the region.