QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety

My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Today, in the chamber, we mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Arbour report, which would not have happened without the courage and vision of our colleague Kim Pate.

The Edmonton Institution for Women opened in 1995 in the wake of the events in Kingston — just after the Arbour inquiry began its work. Its new open campus facility, where women lived in homelike cottages instead of cells, was supposed to represent a more humane and rehabilitative institution.

That was more than 30 years ago, and the last two times I visited the facility with Senator Pate, I was shocked to see how run down and ill repaired the living quarters had become. I was told, and I could see, that there was a huge infrastructure deficit and that there was no budget to do the badly needed renovations.

I actually filed an access to information and privacy request about the state of disrepair, and, years later, I have yet to receive a single document responding to my request.

Today, I want to ask you this: Can you undertake, on my behalf and on behalf of this whole chamber, to provide a full and proper report as to the nature of the needed repairs at the Edmonton Institution for Women and a breakdown of what those repairs might cost?