Louis Sebert

There is no dedicated Facebook page at present, and, although that has been discussed by the department and communication staff, it's not an option immediately available. However, the outreach clinic will advertise on the GNWT Facebook page instead. In some ways, in my view, the best advertisement is the trips that the outreach clinic lawyer makes to the small communities, which I assume are well-advertised. We are bringing the law to the people.

When I was in Enterprise last year and in speaking to the Member for Deh Cho, I realized that this is an important issue for the Hamlet of Enterprise. We are going to be moving as quickly as we can to resolve these matters because, as I said earlier, we realize how important they are to the community.

We realize that, in smaller communities, sometimes there are issues of capacity, so we are moving ahead on a staged approach, which, in the circumstances, we would think is the best way of moving ahead. I can't give a firm date, but I do know that our staff is eager to meet with the community...

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...

The framework deals with many issues, such as application of the framework, the development of the framework, and also identifying priority areas. As I mentioned earlier, a priority area is clearly that area around Yellowknife. The point of the framework was to encourage compliance, strengthen, enforcement and to give residents of the Northwest Territories certainty, or as much certainty as we could, in this area.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, several years ago, we looked into this matter and have our recreational leasing management framework to guide us in this area. With respect to the Yellowknife periphery area, much of the work has been done. It is of course a commitment of this government to advance this process. We did recognize in the framework that there would be certain areas that are of priority, and, clearly, the Yellowknife area is a priority because of the heavy recreational use. I can advise that we are continuing to attempt to engage with our Aboriginal partners in that matter.