Louis Sebert

Perhaps, Mr. Chair, Ms. Schofield can assist with that also.

The portions of the building are being reconfigured. We do have some ideas for the space that the library is currently in. I’m not certain because we haven’t really determined where this resource centre might be located. In the building is there issues of security and so on. But we are certainly looking at possibilities. Again, the building is being reconfigured to some degree. We have ideas for the space on the first floor. Whether the resource centre will be on that floor or perhaps the second floor is yet to be determined. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was one of those sole practitioners until six months ago and found that certainly buying hard cover books are expensive, but I did have my own fairly modest library. I would note, rather, that at one point the Government of the Northwest Territories had libraries in many of the communities which could be used by the lawyers. Hay River used to have a very extensive library, as did Inuvik. Those have all been closed down. I think that what’s happened is the nature of legal research has changed, so the vast majority of it, as I understand, is now being done online. Yes, there are certainly...

Mr. Chair, the government is committed of course to funding these types of organizations because it has been clearly identified that this is a very important area, if I could put it that way, in our society and we do need this help. However, it may be that the program has to be redesigned. We would find that out after the assessment of the program is done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, legal aid has expanded its operations in the area of outreach. There is now an individual that goes out to many of the smaller communities dealing with sometimes issues that cannot be dealt with, either by private lawyers or by the legal aid clinic lawyers, so there is an effort from legal aid to have actual individuals go out and help people, particularly in the smaller communities where access to justice is a large problem, there being no resident lawyers in most of those communities. With respect to the issue of the library, as I have mentioned earlier, the expense of continuing...

Mr. Chair, I don’t think we actually have information as to what they’re paid. I understand that often they’re working in construction sites, so I’m assuming they are paid at least minimum wage, but I don’t have that information before me. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, this is as a result of the transfer of wilderness camp funding from corrections. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, the issue of a standalone courthouse in Yellowknife has been a long-standing issue. I believe this was looked at at some point in the not-too-distant past. The cost of establishing a new standalone courthouse was found to be excessive, so there’s no plans in the immediate future to develop a new courthouse. Certainly, the judiciary and law profession probably would prefer a modern, standalone, separate courthouse. Should we go down that route, the cost would be very, very high and would take away from other capital projects that might be more worthy to a larger group of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned yesterday, there is very little activity, of any kind at the library. There are very few people, lawyers or otherwise using that library. There has been a change in the way in which lawyers and other research the law and most of it is done online. I believe that when the library was reduced from its very large size to its current size, that some of the historic books were given to archives and some of the other books of interest to the local bar were simply given away to the lawyers. I don’t think the law library is used very much by the...

Mr. Chair, we have a contract with an organization that is very experienced in this area, but perhaps I can ask Ms. Haener to give more detail. Thank you, Mr. Chair.