Northern agencies are joining the call for a moratorium on moving girls out of the Prince George Youth Containment Centre.
The first announcement came Thursday when B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond urged the provincial government to halt the plan until community consultation could take place.
The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council and partner service agency Carrier Sekani Family Services has now officially issued a statement of agreement.
"We've had a conference call with [Turpel-Lafond] and she is concerned, as we are, about another unilateral decision by the province," the council's vice-chief Terry Teegee told The Citizen.
"We are concerned that the community has not had a chance to talk about this idea, and we are concerned that even the [partner agencies] didn't know this plan was in the works until the day it was announced."
A response is expected today from Ministry of Children and Family Development minister Mary McNeil.
McNeil announced on Jan. 18 that all female inmates in youth custody would be shipped to the youth jail in Burnaby and the other two girl's jails (Prince George and Victoria) would cease to operate.
The move would save $2.5 million, McNeil said, and the services at Burnaby would be enhanced to better meet the rehabilitation needs of the province's girl inmates as one large group rather than have three small groups spread among three under-capacity facilities.
In a written statement issued on Wednesday, Teegee and agency executive director Warner Adam said the idea should be "postponed... until a full community consultation process in undertaken in Prince George."
The two Carrier Sekani groups argued that breaking ties with the girls' families and local cultures (most youth inmates are of aboriginal heritage and/or northern residency) was counter to their best interests.
Teegee and Adam said the southern centralization plan was noncompliant with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and B.C.'s Child, Family and Community Services Act.
One other Prince George agency - the Urban Aboriginal Justice Society - expressed agreement on Wednesday with pausing the process pending a full public discussion of future youth justice goals for in B.C.
Three provincial advocacy groups - Justice for Girls, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and West Coast LEAF - had previously expressed opposition to the centralization plan.