Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to start by asking how many legal aid lawyers we currently have on staff, what the wait times currently are and how they vary across the Northwest Territories.

Thanks to the Minister. That’s an interesting thought. Again, I don’t see this as the coroner’s office. I think, in terms of a policing role, this department is well qualified to do that, but that’s not what I was suggesting either.

What I’m suggesting is bringing clarity and transparency to the public that the coroner’s recommendations in his or her report are actually received by the institution that they’re directed to and that there is a response. It doesn’t have to be yes, we’re going to do that; it could be we’re already doing that or whatever, or we’re not going to respond, but something...

That’s an education in itself.

The other area I am wondering about, I know from my experience with the AANDC offices, that when the mine inspection division had cases to be made and took it to Justice at the federal level, they repeatedly declined to take on that legal action, and obviously this has consequences because things get worse and worse and it is a bit of a sliding slope, so I want to know that this government is preparing for that. Now, this may not be the right division for this and I would welcome the Ministers’ direction on where to bring this up, but I am looking or will be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. That makes sense to me.

I assume that integrated case management is the Justice side of things, that it’s primarily Justice staff that are working on it and it relates to the legal or, in this case, perhaps quasi-legal aspects of the case. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple questions here. I mentioned during general remarks that it seems that compensation benefits are going up quickly but I realize that there is forced growth in this area plus some new positions. I’m a little bit concerned about new positions in the directorate. I’m not positive there has been new ones, but it seems like a 20 percent increase over two years is quite a bit if there have not been new positions.

My first question is: Has the directorate been put on notice that a policy of passive restraint is to be implemented for the department in 2014-15...

I know some of that was repetitious. I hadn’t got the full picture on that before. Again, there’s nothing new here. The Minister said himself we were to plan this out of our base levels in the past. We failed in every instance. The Minister says we’ve got the same expectations again, but I haven’t heard anything that tells me how we’re going to do that or that we are. It sounds like we’re just going to ignore it again. We’re obviously not thinking about it. I’m looking for something that says, federal government, we’re hearing you. We’ll do the work and this is how we’re going to do it, or we...

Thanks. That does answer the second part. The first part, I guess, maybe I’ll just leave it with the Minister. If he thinks he could provide more information, that would be great.

The positions specific to these and the question specific to these ’14-15 positions, are any of them representing jobs that will be moved from inactive to active status in any way? That may not be something he can provide off the top, but I think that’s the sort of thing that we’re interested in knowing about. Thank you.

That sounds like good progress to me. I’ll try to score a few minutes to look at that report.

Just on page 33, the non-government organizations residential care programs and services related to addictions, mental health, disabilities and chronic illnesses, quite a decline over the last few years. Does the Minister know why this is happening? I noticed quite a difference between the main estimates and the revised estimate last year or this fiscal year. Is there not an uptake from our community organizations here? If that’s the case, $2.9 million approved, $835,000 in expenditures… This is quite...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A little follow-up here. For this one-time funding, I believe we are responsible, then, for coming up with our own dollars for these services subsequently. What is the plan for that? Obviously the planning would have to take place during 2014-15 if it disappears at the end of that year. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to follow up a little bit on active positions versus inactive positions and how that might affect active positions. It’s my understanding that departments can shift positions from inactive to active status, unfunded inactive to active and funded and vice versa.

Can the Minister tell me, has that been done with any of the positions listed on this page for this fiscal year, and is there a plan to do that at all during the fiscal year that’s not described here? Mahsi.