Louis Sebert

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, June 24, 2016, I will move that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Children’s Law Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chair, we have already started the evaluation and we are hoping to get that done in the fall, before the end of the current contract. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I’m certainly not aware of that. I do know that the costs of the library have been exceeding the budget costs by approximately that same amount, but I’m not aware of anything to do with the registries tying into the library.

Yes, certainly we could provide that information. It’s not before us today, but I think part of the point of this, Mr. Chair, is to reintegrate inmates into society and one of the ways of doing that is to get them back into the workforce. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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.