Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South that Bill 6, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2016, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Children’s Law Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled “Annual Report on the Activities of the Rental Office April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kim Schofield to my left, director of finance; Sylvia Haener, deputy minister, to my right.

Mr. Chair, I understand that ITI was not able to keep that money. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, just some history on the clinic up there: At one point, 10 or 15 years ago, there was resident lawyers in private practice, the Federal Crown Attorney's Office was located there, and there was a resident judge, and there was a legal aid clinic with, I think, two or three lawyers. Things changed over time. There's no longer a resident judge. The federal Crown Attorney's Office closed, I think, five or six years ago, and we were left with the legal aid clinic, but we were only providing family law services.

Now, those services will still be provided out of Yellowknife. So these changes...

Mr. Chair, the department is always alive to this concern. We certainly don't see that position as having any effect on access to justice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t like to make commitments for other Ministers, SDLs would be handled by the Department of ITI and perhaps the question could be more appropriately addressed to that Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wonder if I could have you ask the deputy minister to respond to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I think we are aware of the complexity of this issue. Certainly the Member has raised an interesting and complicating point, which we are aware of. I think the best that I can say now is that we are aware of this issue and it may be that in the future we have to make changes in the training of people that are working in the Sheriff's office, and we may also need some legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.