Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Arviat (June 05/02) - Arviat hamlet council has agreed to reopen the alternative justice land camp.

The project's future had been in doubt since an inmate lost his life in a blizzard during the camp's first year of operation.

Council had previously decided the justice camp would have to be relocated before reopening.

Hamlet senior administrator Darren Flynn says plans had been in the works on a new location, but community concerns resulted in that site being dropped.

He says another area will be identified and finalized by July 2002, with the camp being moved to its new location around December.

"We're trying to find a place that isn't used much, if at all, by other people," says Flynn.

"You don't want a lot of traffic around because it can present you with problems such as illicit items arriving -- those types of things."

The project is tentatively scheduled to resume its operations by April 1, 2003.

The camp will operate from April to October of each year to mitigate the risks associated with blizzards.

Flynn says while the death of one inmate is tragic, the alternative justice camp is perceived as having done some good with many other.

He says the council also had to consider the economics of the camp, which, with the hiring of four part-time supervisors, provides the equivalent of two full-time positions in Arviat.

"Economically, our concern is running the camp at no extra cost to the hamlet and creating some much needed employment."

Flynn says the Department of Justice has indicated it will look at a per diem rate to reflect the true cost of running the camp. Although he acknowledges the initial rate per inmate was lower than the hamlet would have liked, financial concerns arose from the camp not always being at capacity.

"We were set up to operate on eight inmates, but we would often only have three or four out there.

"Obviously, in that scenario, your operating expenses are up and your revenues are down," he says.

"When we enter into a new contract, there will be a guaranteed minimum. So, even if there isn't a full population of inmates at the camp at any given time, the revenue will reflect a minimum so we can recover our expenses."