Advocacy groups met with a government official Friday to discuss the controversial closure of the girl's cell block at the Prince George Youth Containment Centre.
Alan Markwart, senior executive director of youth justice services (Ministry of Children and Family Development) came to Prince George to discuss the situation with representatives of Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC), Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS), the Walk Tall Program, Justice For Girls, RCMP and other stakeholders involved with at-risk or high-barrier girls in the north.
Markwart was not available for comment following the meeting.
"There was no consultation with community groups, with aboriginal groups, with the girls who have been incarcerated; it was a decision made in the silo at the ministry level," said CSFS spokeswoman Mary Teegee.
The Citizen broke the story on Feb. 3 that Minister of Children and Family Development Mary McNeil had halted plans to have all regional girls' jails closed during the first week of February and to permanently house all under-18 offenders and remand suspects at one centralized location in Burnaby.
She ordered the closures be delayed for more consultation.
"What I heard was, they are going to close it down regardless of the consultation," said Terry Teegee, vice-chief of the CSTC, upon leaving the meeting with Markwart. "It was a money decision. The delay is just for the government to save face and develop a plan, because they didn't have a plan in the first place. The decision was made for one purpose: save $2.5 million."
The only bright spot, the advocates said, was "a soft commitment" to examine ways of expanding alternative justice programs to make the small number of jailed northern girls (an average of two on any given day) even smaller.
The plan to centralize all females under the age of 19 at the Burnaby facility is now set to go into action on March 19.
