Sandy Lee

…ever so conscientious, and we’ve done travels on this bill and others. You know, this bill is very interesting and it is trying to address the larger public interest goal of making access to legal services and legal counsel more available to those residents in the NWT who qualify for legal aid. I think everybody is aware of the shortage of lawyers not only here but everywhere in Canada, and we have heard over the years about the serious backlog in family law files and criminal files, which are the other…Probably the criminal don’t have as much of a waiting list as family files but, at any...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a final follow-up to that. I know that although we didn’t have a lot of people coming before us in the committee, this initiative has gone through public consultation in at least three communities. I have had lots of people come up and tell me that they would like to see this legislation passed as soon as possible. We do work here, but not everybody knows what we are doing here on a daily basis. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to doing some sort of public awareness, not a campaign but just a public service announcement, maybe a little 30-30...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to just state how important this legislation is really in terms of consumer protection. It is quite surprising that some of the provisions being provided in this bill were either not completed or inadequately addressed in the original Condominium Act. In Yellowknife, I have lived here for…This is my 29th year. In the last 15 years or so, lots of condominiums have gone up or existing dwellings or apartment buildings, but they could be just a collection of housing units or mobile homes have condominiumized. There was a lot happening once in the early...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just as a Member, I would like to speak in support of this bill. I do appreciate that this may not be the most exciting and stimulating piece of legislation that we have had to deal with, but it is an important bill to address a gap that we’ve had in our business practice, legislation, where for those professionals who are not able to take advantage of the law that allows corporations incorporation that is available to other professionals or other businesspeople in order that they be free from liability issues that could…I don’t think this takes away liability...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of timing, we are here until next Thursday. We don’t meet again until next August. I’d like to know if he could tell us when is that 30-day period. Maybe he could sneak that answer in and also answer the question as to whether he’s…He mentioned that the federal government has this project at the top of its list, but what is, are there any meetings proposed, are their officials meeting on this project, and could he give us a date on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding of this project is that government will make an investment, whether it be the GNWT or federal government, to lend the money to the corporation and the corporation will levy enough toll to pay for the project and make a little bit of profit so that the communities can benefit from that. But the return on investment has to be viable. So I’d like to ask the Minister to confirm whether the cost of the project and the increase that’s going on is still making it viable for the corporation to be able to pay the money over a period of time that’s been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to speak today in support of the Premier’s statement yesterday that the GNWT and the Fort Providence combined council are in the final stages of negotiating the concession agreement and project financing for the great Deh Cho Bridge project. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate that questions about the details are warranted and should be provided, and they will be forthcoming. I also respect that Members may have differing opinions on things. But I do believe very strongly that it’s very important for us to not lose sight of the fact that this is a very...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a short follow-up question. We learned during our public hearings, Mr. Chairman, from the Minister that the NWT Law Society was consulted on this legislation and that the Minister received consent or approval from the Law Society. So could I ask the Minister what form of public consultation has taken place with the Law Society? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand that having separate offices is an important distinction, but the witnesses that appear before us were of the opinion that that may not necessarily address the question of possible conflicts of interest as fully as they would like. So could I ask the Minister, for the record, to elaborate more about why those separate offices are necessary and how that would address this concern and what other procedures are in place to make sure the government addresses any potential conflict of interest question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you can see from the report of the committee which was prepared and delivered by the hardworking Social Programs committee…