Brendan Bell

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today, on my left is Gary MacDougall; on my right, Mark Aitken from the Department of Justice.

Sorry; just to be clear, we contacted the Law Society. They indicated they were in support of this. I am not sure what internal consultation they would have done, but they did indicate they were in support of this.

I would. Madam Chair, if you would allow me just before I start, I would like to say hello to my daughter, Emily, who is watching at home with her friend Myra, I understand. They are probably onto other things by now, but they were watching for a brief moment.

The primary purpose of this bill is to permit the registration of limited liability partnerships formed or operating in the Northwest Territories and to establish basic rules and procedures for the registration of these partnerships.

In a general partnership, each partner is liable for the obligations of the partnership, as well as the...

Mr. Chairman, a number of points were made by the Member. Let me first start by saying we are working to try to get more members to the private bar who would be interested in doing this type of legal aid work as it relates to civil matters. We are working cooperatively with the Law Society on recruitment and retention initiatives. We have been doing some joint work at ventures in the South to try to recruit more members into the bar. I think that is the answer. Ideally, we would like to not have this issue. Other larger jurisdictions have the luxury, where there are more members doing this...

Mr. Speaker, I will certainly meet, as I periodically do, with our tourism marketing advisory committee. They are industry stakeholders, representing the tourism industry, and they’ve been tasked with identifying our business plan priorities. There are four of them this year: recreational vehicle general touring, outdoor adventure, German and Japanese markets. I will sit down and talk to them about ecotourism and outdoor adventure, make sure I understand the nuances, and if we can work to build that into their priorities, that’s something that I’m prepared to do. What they do is bring this...

That is correct. I want to make the point that we are talking about separate offices, not the same office. So physically separate offices, same employer; the Member is right. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to assure Members that we’re certainly doing what we can to support this sector. I think we can do more but, as Members will be aware, in the 2010 proposal and documents, since about 2003-2004 we’ve essentially virtually doubled the marketing money that we’re spending in tourism; the amount of money of the contribution that goes to our partner, NWTT. They are spending a lot more on marketing. One of the areas they’ve targeted, Mr. Speaker, is outdoor adventure.

I think that Members have probably by now had a chance to see the 2007 Explorer’s Guide. A nice feature...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The purpose of this bill is to permit staff lawyers working out of different law clinics of the Legal Services Board to advise both parties in a legal matter without that being in and of itself a conflict of interest.

The Legal Services Board and department identified the need for this amendment in response to a diminishing private bar and increasing reliance on staff lawyers. This amendment is in place in other jurisdictions for the same reason: to ensure the provision of timely and quality legal service to clients. The Law Society, which regulates the legal profession...

Madam Chair, it is a good suggestion. We do have this information and we do disseminate it to realtors currently, to lawyers, to those existing condominium corporations. Unfortunately, we obviously don’t know who is intending to convert to condominium, so it is difficult for us to know. But we make the information available and also people who are interested and need more information, if they can’t find it there, they can always come to the Department of Justice. I think it is pretty widely disseminated already. Thank you.

Yes, we would like to do that. Thank you.