Louis Sebert

As I mentioned earlier, there was a delay in this pending the completion of the community plan, which has been approved by MACA. Lands has been attempting to set up times that they could meet with the hamlet. I am encouraged by the information that I have been provided that there have been several attempts. We realize sometimes in the smaller communities there are capacity issues, but we're hoping that there will be a meeting shortly, or perhaps in March. We realize the citizens of the hamlet do need certainty, and we are working towards that.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Northwest Territories Coroner Service 2017 Annual Report"; and, pursuant to section 55(2) of the Legal Profession Act, I wish the table the "Northwest Territories Law Foundation 35th Annual Report for the period ending June 30, 2017" and "Northwest Territories Law Foundation 36th Annual Report for the period ending June 30, 2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, of course, there is the budgetary process that we would have to go through. I do recognize the issue and will make the commitment to look into it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a hypothetical question, of course. I am sure they wouldn't be sitting around, twiddling their thumbs. I think they would be working very hard because there are a lot of clients out there who really do need the assistance of lawyers, legal aid or otherwise. The amount of work, I don't think, is likely to decrease. In fact, it is likely to increase. I think if we added more lawyers or clinics, it would be sufficiently busy to justify their salaries. Thank you.

In the last number of years, the outreach lawyer has been to most of the communities, and I can advise as follows to the upcoming plans. There are community visits planned to Deline, March 4th; Tulita, March 5th; Fort Good Hope, March 6th; and Norman Wells, March 7th and 8th, with monthly community visits to Ndilo, Detah, and Behchoko to continue. The outreach clinic is proposing visits to Fort Smith, August 5th to 8th; the Inuvik region, August 27th to 13th; Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk by road; Aklavik by air; and potentially, Fort Simpson and Fort Liard. There has been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member opposite is quite correct. The outreach program has been a success. They have been visiting many of the communities, and a proposed policy for the outreach clinic has been drafted and will be going to the Legal Aid Commission in the coming months.

I can advise, however, that we are looking at the amount of use that the outreach clinic has, knowing that it needs to fill that gap between the legal aid programs that we have that provide assistance to those in criminal court and family matters and the private bar. We realize that there is a gap that does need to...

As I have mentioned, a prerequisite to the transfers which have been spoken of by the Member opposite was the community plan. That was required before we moved to this next step. We are now moving to that next step, and there will be a staged approach so that the land that we are planning to turn over will be turned over to the Hamlet of Enterprise.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been meetings, of course, between Lands staff, and I know at least one of our senior people has been over there many times to meet with the community. They have been attempting to arrange some other meetings, and I understand that it has been somewhat difficult to arrange a firm date, but hopefully dates can be arranged in the future.

The Member will know that one of the prerequisites to turning over the land was the community plan that was worked on and has now been approved by MACA, so hopefully we're going to be moving ahead in a staged process to...

That is an interesting question, and I can see I can get some help from my fellow Cabinet Ministers on this issue. However, Members will recall the difficulties that we have been facing with the issue of equity leases, which is a much smaller issue than this. I certainly will take the question seriously, and it seems to me that we are not yet ready to make the kind of commitment requested by the Member opposite. Thank you.

Of course, we are attempting to make progress in land use planning generally, but, if looked at from another point of view, recreational land use planning is kind of a subset of the larger issue of dealing with land management. We thought that, because of the heavy pressure in the Yellowknife area in particular, we would attempt to move forward on that project, which is a mandate commitment.