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GN allocates money for new courthouse

Justice department commits to replace former bank building, but what about a new jail?

Plans are under way to replace Iqaluit’s courthouse, which also houses the Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik legal aid services.

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(PHOTO BY KIRSTEN MURPHY)

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KIRSTEN MURPHY

Three years after the 1999 Planning for Nunavut Corrections report recommended sweeping overhauls to the justice system, the Government of Nunavut has committed $10 million over the next three years to building a new courthouse.

"We have not finalized the location of the building but it will be here [in Iqaluit]," said Premier Paul Okalik, who is also the minister of justice, during a Dec. 2 committee of the whole session reviewing the justice department’s 2003-04 capital budget. "We’re aiming for the end of 2005."

The existing courthouse is a former bank building that was last renovated in the 1970s. The facility houses a law library, Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik legal aid services and the coroner’s office.

Anyone spending time in the building knows its faults. The acoustics are bad, the heating is inconsistent and the gallery benches are brutally uncomfortable — and that’s just courtroom one.

Courthouse staff frequently complain about the cramped working conditions and poor air quality.

"We did a feasibility study, we know there are a lot of requirements," Okalik said late last year.

But the need for a new building is old news. After Planning for Nunavut Corrections was released, government officials set up working groups and commissioned feasibility studies.

Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean toured the courthouse last year and called the structure substandard.

"Even when [we] were the Northwest Territories, we went without a proper court facility in this community," McLean told members of the legislature after his visit.

But Nunavut needs a new jail more urgently than a new courthouse. Ron McCormick, director of corrections and community justice, said however, that it’s not a case of one project receiving priority over another.

"The process of the courthouse was started prior to the jail. We are still moving along with our plans, following on the heels of the court," McCormick said.

A replacement jail, also at the planning stages, is scheduled to open in 2006.

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