R.J. Simpson

That is what I expected, especially given that, like I said earlier, the number of small-town lawyers across Canada are disappearing. You know, they are retiring. They are finding second careers in politics. I would like to know: would the Minister be open to actually looking into this and seeing if the need is justified and that perhaps we could take concrete steps toward adding an additional legal aid clinic?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like there is not going to be anyone in the office to answer the phone when people call. Can we get a commitment from the Minister to look at hiring another lawyer to stay in the office while the other lawyer gets to travel around and engage with the community in person?

I know it is being utilized by a lot of people, because, when people call to get an appointment to speak with the lawyer, it is usually quite far in advance. Not everyone, however, needs to speak with a lawyer necessarily, and the department has announced plans to make public legal education materials more available on its website. It also needs to do more work with things like a Facebook page for the Legal Aid Outreach clinic. What is the status of these efforts to get this information out there to the public and make it more accessible online?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for members of the public, dealing with government can be a very frustrating experience. The government is generally designed and operated with a focus on ease of administration rather than end-user experience.

However, Mr. Speaker, no segment of government can compete with the legal system in terms of its opaqueness, inaccessibility, and dizzying complexity, particularly in regards to civil- and family-law matters. While it is convenient to blame everything on Cabinet, I have to admit that the Kafkaesque nature of this system isn't their fault. The system...

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Minister's Statement 131-18(3), Sessional Statement, and Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates, 2019-2020, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.

I appreciate that. The Minister said he would be willing to look into it. I would like a commitment from the Minister. Will the Minister commit to looking into adding an additional legal aid clinic in the South Slave?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some more questions for the Minister of Justice. Earlier, I asked about the Legal Aid Outreach clinic and about getting information out to the public.

I see our guests are leaving here. I was worrying they were going to fall asleep. We don't have the sort of action they are used to in their party-based parliaments.

Mr. Speaker, I have some more questions for the Minister of Justice. Not everyone only needs legal information. Some people actually need a lawyer. You know, by having a lawyer, it actually helps the government. I think it helps bring down costs. It will...

If that is the best way to advertise, then I would like the Minister to advertise more and get the outreach worker out to the communities more. The reason that I talk about a Facebook page is because I wasn't aware that the Legal Aid Outreach clinic lawyer was coming to Hay River. I found out by happenstance. There was no Facebook page to advertise this.

We need to get this information out there so that we can inform people. If the best way to get the information out there is to have the lawyer travel to the communities, will the Minister commit to increasing the number of visits that the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier, I spoke about the complexity of our legal system, particularly in regards to family and civil law, and the difficulty that the members of the public have engaging with this system. This isn't the first time that I have raised this with the department. I have had a number of constituent issues that the Minister is aware about. I have brought this to their attention during our business planning process, and I have walked down the hall and sat with the Minister and his staff and discussed this. I don't think the government should provide everything to...