Oh, $45,000. Okay. That’s fine. So you’re suggesting that we might train one worker three times in a year. Is that correct?

How can I respond to that, Mr. Chair, except to say that I think the Minister’s blowing me off and I don’t like it much. Thank you.

I guess it’s an issue of how we interpret words. To me, establish child and family service committees means that you will work to establish those committees. The word “work” is in there. The verb is in there. To me there’s an action involved in that. The Minister states that they intended to do things as they have done it in the past. Well, that’s no action at all. One child and family service committee was organized in Fort McPherson. It fell apart. It’s maybe gotten back together again. I fail to see how this statement, an action to work with communities to establish committees, doesn’t...

Thanks to the Minister. I’m really glad to hear that, because I really don’t think for a jurisdiction our size that we could afford and/or we could manage a medical examiner system. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not too sure what I can ask at this point. I have no question, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to just state here in terms of the family law initiatives, which we heard about this morning at our briefing, I think the department is absolutely on the right track and the success, obviously, the initial evaluations that they’ve done so far in a number of their programs indicates that the programs are working very well and they’re a success. So I’d like to commend the department for the work that they’ve done there, and I missed the page, but the domestic violence court option is also another area which I think is going to prove to be quite successful.

I wanted...

Thanks to the Premier for those remarks. I didn’t really get any idea of whether or not there’s been any action over there, but I’d like to ask the Minister if he can explain to me and to this House just what priority an ombudsman office has in this government’s total priorities. Is there any hope that it might soon be on the radar? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the deputy minister for that explanation. Yes, I realize that it is a big job and it is not an easy job. I am glad to hear that it is on the radar and it is being looked at.

The last concern that I wanted to raise here, and this, again, came up at least once during the Child and Family Services Act review when we were on our tour, and that is the number of hours that people get from legal aid for their concern or for their issue. Several times we heard people say that they had a lawyer. They were dealing with a lawyer and they were basically told I have used up all of my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to revisit a topic I’ve brought to the House several times before. In May of 2008 and again last February I spoke of the need for the NWT to have an ombudsman’s office. The need for this service has not yet gone away, Mr. Speaker. We are one of only three jurisdictions in Canada which does not have an ombudsman. Our sister territory, Yukon, is not one of them. The Yukon does have an ombudsman office for Yukon residents.

There are many, many situations where NWT residents need an impartial arbiter, an ombudsman to assist them with a dispute or a disagreement...

Mr. Chairman, going forward, I guess, I need to know from the department what the plans are to try and deal with the lack of access to legal aid services that exists in our communities. Thank you.